Incoherent Rambling about SAGA #1

A few hours or so ago, I finished reading the first issue of Brian K. Vaughan's new series, Saga. He co-created it with Fiona Staples, who always does great work... but if I'm being honest here, I showed up to the party primarily for BKV. I often go back and forth about who my absolutely favorite comic book writer is, and I almost always settle on either Brian K. Vaughan or Alan Moore. Nick Spencer, Scott Snyder, Brian Lynch, Joss Whedon - they're all up there, for sure, but BKV's work on Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, and Runaways has completely changed the way I look at comics as a medium and perhaps even the way I look at storytelling. BKV is a master, and this is the first time that I've had the privilege of following one of his comics from the first issue on the day of its release.

Saga gets off to a great start. Perhaps the best start of all of BKV's series. While his other series often take a few issues to fully live up to their premise, I'm already invested in the strange characters that populate the world(s) that BKV and Staples have created. The seeds of many interesting ideas have been planted, and a lot of it hits home in really weird ways because I'm working on a book called Roadkill with Ian McGinty (my Blood Pong co-creator) that has a few similar themes. Romance in the midst of an intergalactic war is nothing new, I suppose, but I'm ecstatic and absolutely relieved that BKV's version is nothing like my own. There's nothing scarier than when the best writer in comics announces that he's doing a new series with a concept similar to something you're working on.

Anyway, that aside, the writing here is as excellent as I'd hoped and (frankly) expected. Especially the stuff with Prince Robot IV. That character (an alien whose head looks like a TV screen - he may or may not suffer from erectile dysfunction) proves that those worried about BKV's normally pop-culture infused writing suffering in this aliens-only story can breathe easy. Vaughan's strength is that all these characters, no matter how alien they get (and man, they get alien as all fuckout), have insecurities that we can relate to... but through the screens of fully fleshed out alien cultures.

It's too early to say "Saga is great and will revolutionize comics," but I think this first issue has come at a great time. Image Comics seems to be attempting to prove that the comics industry has talent, that creator owned books are the future, and that the line should remain drawn at $2.99.

And hell - I'm with it.

-Patrick Shand

Final Comic Book Wednesday

Welcome to the final installment of...

Comic Book Wednesday

Issue #33

Yep, you read that right. After this issue, I'll be unable to continue my weekly blog. It's been a blast writing about the books I read here, and I think it's actually increased my enjoyment of those comics. I've been working as a Screenwriting teacher at Five Towns College, and my workload has increased threefold this semester... and I think it's time to focus all of my writing attention on - well, you know, my writing. I'll still write about comics, and I'll even post reviews, but I definitely can't do it on a weekly basis any more.

So alas... let's get to it!

Thankfully, this was a good week. Angel & Faith, TMNT, and JLD all delivered fantastic reads, and even the books that didn't totally impress me weren't quite bad.

Angel & Faith #6

Daddy Issues - Part One

Written by Christos Gage

Art by Rebekah Isaacs

Dark Horse Comics

It makes sense that the best installment of Angel & Faith thus far has the best cover. Steve Morris' cover, featuring a younger Giles emerging from a Russian doll-version of Giles as we know him... it's perfect. It's perfect because it intrigues and mystifies while also accurately representing the inside story. It also functioned to tease the fandom a bit, as it was released before we got a chance to read A&F #4, which many fans thought to be the climax of the "Angel resurrects Giles" arc. However, it wasn't, and Christos Gage is telling that slowburn story over the course of the whole twenty-five issue series. What this cover did was make the fandom wonder if Giles was going to be brought back successfully as Ripper - which is a great idea, but Gage has something else in mind.

Angel, while still obsessed with the idea of bringing Giles back, continues his mission of using Giles' Watcher's Diary as a yellow pages of the supernatural. He goes after a Lophrage demon, a mosquito lookin' mamajama who we're introduced to in a kickass flashback to Giles' time in Watchers Academy. The show, because of obvious age issues, never gave us a look at the teenage, pre-Ripper Giles... but now, in this comic, all those old impossibilities are nothing but memories. Along with the rest of his senior class, Giles has an encounter with this horrifying Lophrage demon, which serves to give Angel a new mission as well as to shed some light on why Giles became Ripper in the first place.

Faith is kept busy, investigating a vampire named Mother Superior. Faith's story is still very tied to Nadira, who is about as fun to read as Rona was to watch in Season Seven, but at least the Slayer Juniors get very little page time here. As Angel brings Faith on board with his Lophrage hunt, it becomes clear quickly that the elusive Mother Superior is involved with the demon in some way. I'm just going to go ahead and spoil the reveal at the end, because... well, anyone who has seen the covers knows, and really - anyone that knows Drusilla knew it would be her as soon as the name "Mother Superior" was mentioned. What other vamp who would warrant a reveal would choose such a name?

The real reveal, though, is that Drusilla is sane. This intrigues me a lot, because the optimist in me thinks that this may be Christos Gage attempting to tie his stories into IDW's work on Angel and Spike, considering Drusilla's sanity (and the fragility of it) was a major, major aspect of Brian Lynch's final Spike arc. On the other hand, I can see Drusilla using the Lophrage demon to steal other people's sanity - but there's enough speculation on the boards. From where I stand, it was the best issue of the series so far. I love how we're playing with the motif of fathers (Angel - Drusilla, Giles - his father, and Faith - her father... who we meet in this issue as well), which solidifies my hope that this series isn't just throwing Angel and Faith together for the hell of it. This series is about something, and I'm very, very engaged.

The most awesome aspect of the book, though, is Rebekah Isaac's artwork. Her characters are the perfect marriage of stylization and capturing likenesses. The action moves nicely, the small character moments really sing, and it has a dark, consistent tone that elevates this book quite a bit. I may like the lightness and the wordplay in the Buffy: Season Nine book slightly better than the story Gage is telling, but Isaacs' art just makes this one the winner. That might be, though, because BtVS:9 is such a vast improvement over BtVS:8, which Angel & Faith has just been really consistently good.

I hope this title continues to grow, but it really has everything right. I hope that the one-shots and the comedic stories are a bit better going forward, but Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs knock the arcs out of the park.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6

Story by Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz

Written by Tom Waltz

Art by Dan Duncan

IDW Publishing

I originally tweeted that this was the best of IDW's ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, but I'm going to amend that... it's the best since the first issue. And don't think I'm trying to turn this issue into Pluto, but I just went back and reread all of the issues, and that first one is really the perfect comic book. This one continues the story in an incredibly exciting way, continuing to blend the original gritty comic with the pizza-celebrating cartoon, creating a book that all generations of fans can embrace.

In this one, shit begins to hit the fan. It's revealed that Baxter Stockman hired Old Hob to bring down the turtles, and this uneasy alliance makes for great reading. It leads to the awesome reveal at the end of the issue which reintroduces the MOUSERS to the TMNT-verse, but the best think about the Hob/Stockman team-up is the humor. My favorite scene in the comic:

HOB: Holy...

STOCKMAN: Impressive, aren't they? We've been developing them as part of a program to locate and destroy I.E.D.s on the battlefield.

HOB: I.E.D.s?

STOCKMAN: Improved Explosive Devices.

HOB: ...

STOCKMAN: A booby trap that goes boom.

HOB: Ah. Gotcha.

All of the plotlines from the previous issues continue here. Casey Jones meets up with April O'Neil, the turtles and Splinter continue to talk about and debate their presumed reincarnation, and the Foot Soldiers brew up some trouble. It's all building toward something big, and I can't wait to see what the ongoing and Brian Lynch's two remaining microseries bring.

Aquaman #5

Lost

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Ivan Reis

DC Comics

I liked this. I liked it a lot better than JL#5. It's about as "written for trade" as JL, but the thing about this book is that it's a hell of a lot stronger than JL, so the overall effect is a bit less damning. It's a quick read, but the narrative device of throwing Aquaman into the desert and then showing us how he got there by alternating from the desert to the past is strong.

The current arc is leading to a major storyline having to do with Atlantis, and I'm very much looking forward to it. I like Aquaman as this likable, badass, overlooked hero. I like that the events of the previous arc are still bothering him. I like that the new mystery is still attached to the events of "The Trench" storyline, giving this book a cohesive "big picture" feel. I like a lot of things about this book and I think that, in good time, I may even love it. This issue doesn't do much to make Aquaman climb to the top of my pull list, but I'm consistently enjoying it.

Justice League Dark #5

In the Dark finale: There Was a Crooked Man

Written by Peter Milligan

Art by Mikel Janin

DC Comics

And the first arc of one of my favorite New 52 books comes to a close. It's a satisfying, if not perfect, ending that leaves me wondering where the hell Milligan's going to take the story. The dark tone that makes this series such a creepy read permeates this issue especially, so there is no happy ending for June Moone... but it's not heart-crushingly dark either. At the end of the issue, our team of characters isn't a team at all. Hell, they don't want to see each other, and I don't blame them. Milligan is cooking up some nastiness for them in each issue, and none of these people are true heroes. They lack the moral fiber of Superman and his kind, but some of them still try to be heroes... which leads them to clash. A lot.

One minor complaint was that Constantine was a bit too much of a jerk here. I know he is no longer the man who wants to save the world that we first ran into in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, but he's a bit... well, he's sort of like Spike in the finale of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For those of you that don't worship at the altar of Whedon, that means that Constantine claims to only be interested in saving the world because he is on the world. The Constantine I've read has lost a lot, but isn't selfish enough that he only values his own safety. Maybe it's just him being a hardass and I'm reading too literally, but that was a bit jarring for me.

The art is perfect. Mikel Janin's work is perfect for this book, and I hope he's in it for the longrun. He is perfect for this book and certainly vice-versa.

I know some folks have lost patience with the slow-boil narrative, but this is one of the most consistently enjoyable books in my pull list. I can't wait to see what fate has in store for these poor bastards next.

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Thanks for reading. I'm going to keep updating this blog, so hang around. I've got a lot more to say.

Comic Book Wednesday - Best of 2011

With one day left in the year, I'm a week behind in my weekly comic book reviews. It's the holidays, though, so what can I say? Instead of this week's round of Comic Book Wednesday, I've decided to do a bit of an awards show.

Eh, who am I kidding? One ginger's opinionated ramblings do not an awards show make. Here's a run down of my favorite comics this year, as well as some stuff from years past that I think you should give a look at.

The Comic Book Wednesday 2011 Not-Really-Awards Awards

Best Ongoing Series - Mainstream

Batman

Written by Scott Snyder

Art by Greg Capullo

DC Comics

This is absolutely no contest. While DC's New 52 changes have forced my formerly favorite title (Supergirl) to the bottom of my pull list, Batman was left unscathed by this shiny new universe. In fact, with Scott Snyder at the wheel, this revamp of Batman is the best on-going title I've had the pleasure to read all year. Snyder's Bruce Wayne is intelligent, calculating, flawed, human, obsessed, and entertaining as all hell. While more than six titles feature Batman as a lead character, do not let this one get lost in the shuffle. Scott Snyder is the Batman writer to follow.

Best Ongoing Series – Indie

Morning Glories

Written by Nick Spencer

Art by Joe Eisma

Image Comics

Again, not much of a contest here. Image, Vertigo, Avatar, IDW, Zenescope, and (especially) Archaia are putting out great creator-owned series, but the sheer quality of Nick Spencer's magnum opus is what, as a creator, I personally aspire to. The dialogue is perfect; the characters are alternately intriguing, amazing, and despicable; and the plot, as mind-fuckey as it is, creates the most interesting fictional setting since Lost. Nothing but praise for this series.

Best Ongoing Series - Media

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Nine

Written by Joss Whedon & Andrew Chambliss

Art by Georges Jeanty

Dark Horse Comics

It's an understatement to say that Buffy: Season Eight got a bit wacky, but Joss Whedon managed to reel his imagination in and start this new season of comics with a story that was as true to the characters as any episode of the original show. It's still early in the series (we're currently four issues in), but this has already moved back to the very top of my pull list.

Best Miniseries – Indie

Mystic

Written by G. Willow Wilson

Art by David Lopez

CrossGen

I'm not sure if this can really count as indie, because Marvel puts out CrossGen books, but this is about as far as you can get away from your normal superhero fare. G. Willow Wilson's tale of magic, privilege, friendship, and class was two parts Harry Potter, one part Victorian, and fully awesome. With the best art and some of the wittiest writing of the year, I hope that this will return with the same creative team for a long, long run.

Best Miniseries – Mainstream

Flashpoint

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Andy Kubert

DC Comics

I was going back and forth between this and Nick Spencer's Spider-Island: Cloak and Dagger. I'm still not 100% sure that I've made the right choice, but here's why I settled on Geoff Johns' Flashpoint... despite all the shit that it's gotten. This series has a lot of build-up and not much action to pay it off, but what it does have is more emotional payoff than I've seen in this medium. By the time I finished this series, I was a shivering mess - and I applaud Geoff Johns for that. It heralded the end of a universe, but for Barry Allen, it was the end of the hope that he'd be able to save his mother's life. It's that core of the series that makes this mini so much stronger than people give it credit for.

Best Miniseries - Media

Illyria: Haunted

Written by Scott Tipton & Mariah Huehner

Art by Elena Casagrande

IDW Publishing

It might be cheating a bit because I ended up working on IDW's Angel and Scott is a friend, but I'll be damned if this wasn't one of the best books of the year. This series, which is mostly a team-up between Spike and Illyria, has a perfect balance of action, emotion, and humor - basically, it's everything that Angel the TV show was at its best. Also, it's pretty ballsy, considering the character-altering changes made to a licensed character. I'm not sure if we'll ever get another Illyria series, but it's good to know that the comics finally lived up to the standard that Whedon set with "Not Fade Away" and Brian Lynch set with the stunning climax to his "Angel: After the Fall" arc.

Best One Shot – Mainstream

Jimmy Olsen

Written by Nick Spencer

Art by RB Silva and DYM

DC Comics

This was my first introduction to Nick Spencer, and I've since powered through his entire impressive catalogue. Hilarious and heartfelt, this one-shot collects and finishes the stories that Spencer began in Action Comics. It focuses on (obviously) Jimmy Olsen, Superman's pal. I hope this gets collected in some sort of trade, because if I read this oversized issue once more, it's going to fall apart.

Best One Shot – Indie

Gotta be honest here. I haven't read any indie one-shots this year except for a few that it would be totally douchey to list. I read Scott Tipton's ANGEL: THE COVERS, which is great... but it's an art book. Tim Seeley gave me a one-shot of his at NYCC, but that's not from this year. It would be totally pretentious to even mention my Grimm Fairy Tales one shot, and it would be pandering to Zenescope to list their one shots that I read (and really enjoyed, particularly Dan Wickline's SINBAD stuff). I really enjoyed THE BEAUTY from Top Cow's PILOT SEASON event, but that is effectively the first issue in (hopefully) a series. So I fail. Instead, I'm going to leave this blank and ask you guys what indie one-shots you'd recommend to me.

Best One Shot – Media

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Michelangleo

Written by Brian Lynch

Art by Andy Kuhn

IDW Publishing

To get an idea of why this comic is listed here, check out this preview of the issue. This book just came out last two days ago, and I've already read it through twice... because it's really just that good. Brian Lynch, who wrote Angel: After the Fall and the creator-owned Everybody's Dead through IDW, has been scripting one-shots focusing on the Turtles since November. He began with Raphael, and then finished out 2011 with this issue that features Mikey attending a New Years Eve party and... and, well, getting into some deep shit. It's hilarious, a bit cute, and pretty damn fun. Can't think of a better book for both new and longtime Turtles fans.

Best New Series – Mainstream

Justice League Dark

Written by Peter Milligan

Art by Mikel Janin

DC Comics

You won't find such an assortment of wonderfully tortured, criminally interested characters in one book anywhere else in comics. While I think these characters should also have their own books, their team-up is one of the other good aspects of DC's New 52. The book is clever, creative, and - most importantly - different from everything else out there. If you're looking for a comic that satisfies both your superhero cravings and that small part of you that loves being creeped the hell out, this is your book.

Best New Series – Indie

Infinite Vacation

Written by Nick Spencer

Art by Christian Ward

Image Comics

Though it only came out a few times in 2011, this book is one of the best new creator owned properties since American Vampire and iZombie. It's got all of the humor and what-the-fuckness that Nick Spencer always offers, but what makes this series go above-and-beyond is Ward's beautiful art. Just open one these issues in a comic shop and I dare you to leave the store empty-handed. Utterly gorgeous, even (especially) when it's so terrifying it makes you squirm.

Best New Series - Media

Ghostbusters

Written by Erik Burnham

Art by Dapper Dan Schoening

IDW Publishing

I had a couple of ways I may have gone for this. I'm loving Buffy: Season Nine, Angel & Faith, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Brian Wood's Supernatural... but this comic does something very rare. I'm still scared that Ghostbusters fans might seek me out and stab me to death, but at just five issues, I already like this comic better than the movies. It's brilliant. Brilliant. The dialogue is the best Ghostbusters comics have ever seen, incredibly interesting things are being done with the characters, and Burnham is embracing all of the Ghostbusters tropes while also paving his own way. And that, my friends, is everything a tie-in comic should aspire to be.

Best Webcomic

The Adventures of Superhero Girl

Written and drawn by Faith Erin Hicks

I joined the party late, but I think I'm sticking around until everyone else is long gone. Yeah, gonna be that guy. This is one of those excellent comics that you visit for a few laughs... and before you know it, you've gobbled up the entire thing and you're late to do that super important thing that you now realize wasn't nearly as important as spending your day reading this excellent strip.

Best Artist

Michael Allred

(iZombie)

Chris Roberson's amazing entertaining creator-owned book iZombie is one of my favorite series, so I had to give this to Mike Allred. His retro-inspired art is perfect for this book, adding to the off-kilter tone that Roberson plays both up and against. More than any other artist this year, Allred's style kept me lingering on each panel a bit longer than necessary. I hope he and Roberson stay on this underrated book for a long, long time.

Best Cover Artist

Jenny Frison

(Angel, House of Night, I Vampire, Hack/Slash)

For me, there's no better cover artist working in comics. She's distinctive, consistent, so wonderfully strange in her concepts, and... well, the work speaks for itself. When it's not utterly terrifying, it's painfully beautiful. Jenny has been getting more work lately than I've been capable of tracking, and no one deserves it more. I can't think of a single other cover artist whose books I will buy just for the cover - but her work is just that good.

Best Writer

Scott Snyder

(American Vampire, Batman, Swamp Thing)

Scott Snyder and Nick Spencer's work really defined my reading schedule this year. However, it's Snyder's inspiration posts about the craft of writing, his pitch perfect scripts, consistency and intriguing ideas that pushed him (slightly, because I love me some Nick Spencer) to the top for me. This is a man who, after this year, has gotten me hooked. He's joined the ranks of Alan Moore, Brian K. Vaughan, Joss Whedon, and Nick Spencer in the I'm Going to Buy Everything They Write No Matter What club. It's because the books are great, yes, but also because Snyder's phenomenal work makes me want to be a better writer. And what else can a guy ask for?

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Just for kicks, here are a few other recommendations.

An Elegy for Amelia Johnson. Written by Andrew Rostan. Art by Dave Valeza and Kate Kasenow.

Fly. Written by Raven Gregory. Art by Eric J.

Hack/Slash. Written by Tim Seeley.

Growing-Up Comic. Written and drawn by Matt Roscetti.

The God Machine. Written and drawn by Chandra Free.

27: First Set AND 27: Second Set. Written by Charles Soule. Art by Renzo Podesta.

All right, friends. See you next week for another set of reviews for Comic Book Wednesday.

Keeping Comics Alive

Working as a freelance writer is a blast. Mostly. The parts not encompassed by that "mostly" include that "not having a lot of money" thing. And that often leads to adjunct-professoring (raises hand) and working in retail (raises other hand). Neither of those are writing, so that is a bit of a downer... but hey, at least I have jobs that help me live in this crazy job market. I'll be honest, though: sometimes, working in retail - even if the job is in a bookstore - can be a bit of an inspiration killer.

However... there are those few occasions when something happens that makes you smile, think, and then smile some more.

I'm working a seasonal job at Barnes and Noble, and I've had a bit of a hard time balancing it with my teaching job and writing. This past Friday, I was in a grumpy "I should be writing" kind of mood when a little girl came up to me and asked me where the Sonic comics were. I took her to our comics section, which had the monthlies, and then to the Independent Reader area, which had many, many collections of the stories. Much to her mother's chagrin, this little girl proceeded to talk my ear off for an entire half hour about how awesome Sonic is, how great comics are, and how every supporting character in Sonic is better than Justin Bieber.

Now, it's cool to see anyone geek out over something. Thing is, though, I wouldn't have expected to see a girl who couldn't be more than ten so fully entranced by comics. Why? Well, the industry has been marginalizing women for quite a while, and recent comics have turned characters that young girls loved into space-bimbos. That's not even really it, though. Anyone paying attention knows that, despite what some creators and shop owners will try to get folks to think, comics is no longer an all boys club. What surprised me was how young this girl was. Comics have long since been going the whole "comics aren't for kids anymore!" route. But... why? Sure, the gritty stories have their places and I enjoy a lot of them, but even when I was a kid (and I'm just in my early twenties here), I had a collection of superhero comics that didn't feature faces being ripped off.

A lot of people stick with the whole "this is a dying industry" spiel. I disagree. As long as fans as passionate as that young Sonic fan exist, the industry will survive. However, we should give fans like that more comics that they can read. More stories that they can love. DC is doing a great job with their Tiny Titans book, but it's a bit silly that not one of the New 52 has an "everyone" rating. Why?

And remember... writers don't have to dumb down their stories to appeal to kids. Batman: The Animated Series showed that it's possible to create a complicated, engaging story that will appeal to adults the same way it will to children.

So let's keep this industry alive. If not for my livelihood, for those young Sonic fans that want more books to geek out over.