Diversification -- or possibly disappearing up my very own...

As many of you know, I am a big comics reader, or was before a double bout of tennis and golfer's elbow (double bout as in both arms) laid me low and left me severely restricted in non-job-related activities requiring fine-motor coordination. Turning pages in physical books, or comic books, became a fairly painful proposition, and I had to spare what elbow-grease I had in me for earning my living (yeah, computers).

That was last fall.

But did I stop buying comics? Oh, no. I did cut back severely and I stopped letting those filthy pushers at my Friendly Local Comics Shop, Heroes Only tempt me with the dreaded Preview guide every month, but there were some titles I just could not bear to stop. I'd get to them eventually, right?

Many months have gone by since then, and my arms are as better as they are going to get. I have braces, a nutrition/supplement/exercise regime that is pretty much staving off further damage (Dragon Naturally Speaking plays a big part, there. Not having to type at home is quite a boon. If you're of the kind of age that politely gets suffixed with -ish and you have had a career that's mostly involved computer work, you might consider giving your elbows and wrists a break yourself, before you run into the situation that I did. And yes, I was very attentive to ergonomics. It happened anyway), and prescriptions for gabapentin and lidocaine patches to hold the pain at bay.

I also have more than two shortboxes crammed full of unread comics. And a handful of Twitter followers who tell me they miss the good old days, when once a week I would go through a huge pile of comics and live-tweet my way through them with the hashtag #SundayComics.

I made noises about resuming that now that I'm more or less better, but twinges in the old hinge joints are happening again that make me hesitate to take that on again. So here's my compromise. That I might regret, but anyway...

Once a day, I will read one comic from the giant to-be-read stash, and I will describe/review it in sonnet form. And rather than clutter up this feed or the Suppertime Sonnets feed, I'll post the results on a brand new blog:

Ladies and gentlemen and other allegedly sentient beings, I give you: Comics Time Sonnets. There is, as of today, one entry. Tomorrow there will be other. I make no firm promises that I'll manage to post there every single day; gone are the days when I'll freak the hell out on vacation and make the people I'm with drop everything and help me find a wi-fi signal just so I can post. But most days, I will.

Enjoy! Or something.

Sunday Comics Round-Up - August 28

Yesterday was "Read Comics in Public" day and you'd better believe that I celebrated. After all, I had last Sunday to make up for. And I'm still behind! It never ends! Which is a good thing.

BODYSNATCHERS, Issues 1 and 2

THE CREATORS

Bodysnatchers is written and drawn by Pakko Massimo, colored by Barbara Ciardo, and released by GG Studios, your American home for crazy/weird and occasionally awesome Italian comics. Andrea Plazzi translated it into English.

THE SCHTICK

A story with retro sci-fi flare and a visionary dystopian saga, Bodysnatchers is a pulsing narrative set in the future city of Ecumenopolis. Bodies are disappearing as the city's foundations are eaten away by an internal threat. A civil war between castes ignites, as Black Eightball, Aristoi, Cives, Bodysnatchers shamans and White Eightball struggle for supremacy. - from GG Studios' website

THE TWEETS

Eep. Already two issues of #TheBodySnatchers on my stack. When did GG Studios get so prompt and timely?

Cover features a very angular/geometric woman in weird body armor on top w/bikini bottoms, holding 2 swords.

She's vaguely Lara Croft-like. And jumping from a skyscraper in a full tuck into some kind of fray below.

Like a lot of GG's books, I'm finding this a little impenetrable. Not sure if it's cultural or what.

"You make the prisoners, asscrat." Umm... whut?

I *think* this aristocrat (?) with her hair in the severe red bun is the same person as the sword chick ...

I get a Transmetropolitan vibe from the street scenes and the way the characters talk about commoners.

I wonder if #TheBodySnatchers are stealing prole bodies (still in use) for spare parts/regeneration for old aristos?

Guess not. But it seems our now-widowed heroine is in danger from some ill-defined plot and on the lam. OK.

Maybe things will get clearer in Issue 2? I can only hope.

Opening with a flashback. Visually striking, white lines delineate figures against dark burgundy/green BGS.

Yeah, bog standard aristo descending into the underbelly tale going on.

OK, the "TeenToys" got my attention. And one is referred to as "Perky Pat!"

The TeenToys are quite striking and creepy. A lot like the dwarf-robots in BladeRunner. I hear those voices for the TTs dialogue.

Still a little O_o after Issue 2 but intrigued by the Dickian elements and aesthetic.

THE SUMMING UP

I realize now that it wasn't GG being timely at all; the first issue came out in March! I just had it filed to read later because I view a lot of GG product with suspicion; the first book they solicited, Mediterranea, is basically a big dumb slab of cheesecake eye candy, its techno-Byzantine populated by a serious overabundance of pneumatic, doe-eyed, practically naked women, and here comes Bodysnatchers with a sword-wielder in bikini bottoms on the cover. Issue 2 finally came a long and I realized I needed to have a look and make a decision about whether to keep my subscription going. Having read these two issues back to back now, I'm still not sure. There's some intriguing stuff here but I'm still not sure what's supposed to be going on except that it's a cyberpunk world, with the standard high-tech/lowlife schtick straight out of early William Gibson with perhaps a dash of the Bruce Sterling of Heavy Weather. I find the protagonist pretty boring and none of the other characters have their hooks in me. What does have a modest barb is the art: the gritty city is excellently rendered and intriguing and the character designs are pretty cool. It's possible that no matter what exertions Plazzi makes in translating the dialogue it's just not going to come across? I don't know anyone who isn't having a problem following this story at any rate.

LADY MECHANKIA, Issue 2

THE CREATORS

This one is very much writer/penciller/inker Joe Benitez's baby; he's wearing all of his (steampunked) hats here, teamed up with Peter Stiegerwald on colors. Aspen Comics is publishing this one, sporadically. Honestly, I don't know if it's the press or Diamond who keeps Aspen's, Moonstone's and other indie titles coming to me at such random and long intervals!

THE SCHTICK

Specializing in the occult and paranormal activities, Lady Mechanika solves the confounding mysteries of the supernatural others cannot. However, it is the mystery of her own origin that drives her unflinching determination. She is part human and part metal, but must use all of her wits to uncover the truth about her creation. It is a path leading her directly into the sights of Lord Blackpool, a malevolant, and deadly, arms dealer with the answers she seeks about her life— and the power to end it. Lady Mechanika debuted in the fall of 2010 and quickly became one of the best selling independent comic books of that year. The genre smashing title has captivated the hearts of steampunk and graphic novel fans around the world. - From Aspen Comics' website

THE TWEETS

How about some #LadyMechanika now. I wonder if I remember enough of what's going on in this one. Long time since #1.

Wow. This is a really talky comic. Art overwhelmed by speech balloons.

All the dialogue is one person, too. And I really want her to shut up. Graceless exposition. Bah.

Ha! And then she complains about #LadyMechanika's "incessant drone." Projection, much?

"He decimated us. Decimated us all." Bleargh. #LexicalPetPeeves #ReducedByATenthMotherfolklore

Argh. Another character just spewing backstory.

There is serious talent at work in #LadyMechanika, but the story is feeling stale. And the ravishing art is covered in words.

This issue felt mostly like padding. All the scenes could have been shorter, or at least less wordy.

THE SUMMING UP

I should be enjoying this comic way more than I am. It's a glorious steampunk adventure and the main character is a Victorian cyborg, for pity's sake. What's not to love. But this issue really did feel padded out to a degree I'm disinclined to forgive. There really are whole pages where you can't see anything but speech balloons overwhelming the characters, so what should be exciting -- Mechankia meeting her nemesis who was once her mentor (itself a pretty cliched superhero trope, but Benitez has spent a lot of his career churning out superhero books, so yeah...) -- just made me roll my eyes and wait for it to be over. And the issue never recovered from the speechifying, which just bled over into other scenes. Mechanika is at risk of becoming Lemmiwinks, kids. I'm pretty disappointed.

BLUE ESTATE, Issue 5

  

THE CREATORS

This one's from Image Comics. The story is by Viktor "Heavy Metal" Kalvachev and Andrew Osborne, with art by Kalvachev, Toby Cypress (who's done everything from Batman to X-Men to Star Trek, but whom I chiefly did for the issue he did of C.B.G.B.) and Nathan Fox.

THE SCHTICK

A powerhouse team of Hollywood and comic book veterans (along with special guest artists) presents a fast, funny, 100% cool new series for readers of all stripes. On the mean streets of Los Angeles, an alcoholic hit man and a desperate starlet dodge Russian mobsters, Italian gangsters, ninjas, hippies and the L.A.P.D. in a scheme to steal millions from a psychotic action movie hero. - from Image's website.

THE TWEETS

#BlueEstate is next on the stack. Lurid tabloid-y pulp crime fiction with lots of Hollywood seediness troweled on.

Smashing up yard gnomes with a tire iron. Cover your eyes, @JeremyCShipp*

The stuff with the wigs is pretty funny.

Groan. "What's he doing out there, sudoku?" And so when the 'ho emerges from his car, they call her Sudoku.

Hee hee. Termites. A wannabe real estate tycoon's best friend. Hee hee.

The OTT cartooniness of the art is perfect for this farcical story.

I don't feel as much like I need a shower as I thought I would after reading an issue sub-titled "The Money Shot"

THE SUMMING UP

This comic is growing on me. At first I thought it was trying too hard, and while it still is, it's succeeding a lot of the time. This is a very convoluted crime story -- actually several crime stories all interwoven in amusing and intriguing ways (each new issue starts off with a helpful diagram to illustrate the complexities of the relationships between the characters it highlights): money laundering, murder plots, real estate tomfoolery, and the making of stupid B-movies starring the head bad guy's Russian girlfriend. Neither the HBG nor the RG are in this issue, but I didn't notice their lack until the end, watching henchmen hench (and fiddle around with a lady's wig collection). It's all presented in a hilarious cartoony style that reminds me of John K. (of Ren & Stimpy fame) and some really great coloring. Really great -- the coloring is what first caught my eye. If you wish Quentin Tarantino would lay off the French film snobbery and kung-fu kookiness and just go back to making stuff like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, this is the comic for you.

B.R.P.D.: HELL ON EARTH: MONSTERS, Issue 2

THE CREATORS

B.R.P.D. is a Dark Horse book, a spin-off of Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola. This arc is written by  John Arcudi, penciled by Tyler Crook and colored by Dave Stewart.

THE SCHTICK

Trapped in a weird trailer park full of hillbilly cult fanatics, Liz Sherman must fight her way through the high priest of trash for safety! - From Dark Horse's website.

THE TWEETS

#BRPD: Hell on Earth: Monsters Issue 2 next. Yeah, the title/issue #s get complicated in the Hellboy universe.

Gotta say, I've enjoyed this Liz-centric arc a lot more than I thought I would. She's not been my favorite character.

Ahh yes. We're still among the hillbillies. One of whose ass Liz kicked last time XD

Oh no! Chased by possessed rednecks!

Perfidia!

Has Liz ever been this badass? And still barefoot, mind!

Meanwhile, back at HQ, WTF?

THE SUMMING UP

As I said above, Liz has never been my favorite character in the Hellboy universe, but she's quite enjoyable to watch here; instead of angsting over how her power (she's a firestarter) isolates her or over her complicated relationship with Hellboy, she's drawing on her training as a Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense agent and using her brain to figure out what's going on in this trailer park, and her fists and feet to make it out alive -- despite the betrayal by someone she thought she should be able to trust. This is all -- with developments in the Hellboy comic -- building up to something major, and it's going to be great and terrible, especially if that someone who seems to have died back at headquarters really died back at headquarters. Um. Wow.

FEEDING GROUND, Issue 6

THE CREATORS

Feeding Ground comes from Archaia Comics and was created by Swifty Lang, Michael Lapinski and Chris Mangun. The six issues in this awesome miniseries are written by Lang and drawn and colored in fantastic, folk-art style by Lapinski.

THE SCHTICK

This new series is ripped right out of the real-life drama unfolding on the Mexico-Arizona border! Feeding Ground reaches a large and diverse audience no matter your personal point of view on the issue. In this factious story, a famine caused by Blackwell Industries drives Diego Busqueda, a noble “coyote,” to lead a band of Mexican border crossers across the unforgiving Devil’s Highway, a desert cursed with blistering days and deadly nights. Back home, Diego’s daughter Flaca discovers that something hungrier prowls the factory fields. Stalked and persecuted, can the Busqueda family maintain their dreams of immigration or will the horrors of the desert tear them apart? - From Archaia Comics' website

THE TWEETS

Now, a long-overdue helping of werewolf/illegal immigrant mayhem. It can only be #FeedingGround

I love that these are bilingual flip books. I dig testing myself with the Spanish version first.

I wonder what @MYMHM's** grandma, who loves Sleep Dealer, would think of #FeedingGround. Similar themes. But werewolves.

Oh man. Oh man. Flaca, don't eat your daddy. Please?

This storyline is getting pretty intense.

OK, killing that daddy instead is a little better. But only a little.

And this last issue of the series ends with a big ol' question mark. As perhaps it should.

Lots of cool pin-ups in the center of this one, including one by GB Tran! Neat 8).

That's a book I'm really glad I took a chance on. There's a hardcover soon. Get it.

THE SUMMING UP

I reviewed this comic fairly extensively for The Functional Nerds when Issue 4 came out back in April. I stand by that very favorable review; this is truly a stand-out comic for its topicality, its art and its incredible dramatic tension as well as its publication as a bilingual flip book, and I am delighted that it ended with potential for more storylines in the future. Werewolves and illegal immigration are not an obvious pairing but Lang and Lapinski made it work. If you missed this, get on over to Archaia's website and get you some, single issues or I guess you can wait for the hardcover but the flipbooks are just so cool! At any rate, go!

CALIGULA Issue 2

THE CREATORS

Avatar Press produces this book, written by David "Crossed" Lapham and drawn by newcomer German Nobile, who has so far worked exclusively for Avatar Press. That all should be warning enough.

THE SCHTICK

David (Crossed) Lapham unveils a new tale of ancient Rome and the most feared emperor of all time. The one name that still speaks volumes of how absolute power can corrupt - Caligula. Assassination attempts against him have failed and Caligula now demands blood vengeance. Can Felix keep his focus and sanity in the face of so much misery and horror? A modern master of horror, Lapham digs deep into the world of Rome 37 AD and offers a unique epic of sin. Joined by new talent German Nobile who promises to serve up fully-painted pages dripping with blood, this all-new, full-color series will be six issues of evil that will make any Crossed fan smile with glee. For in the age of Caligula, all roads lead to Hell.

THE TWEETS

What's up, #Caligula, you sick, scary bastard whom they found a way to make even sicker and scarier?

"I wasn't feeling well and so stayed at the palace while #Caligula went to the ampitheater to mete out more death." XD

This caption accompanying a splash page with what appears to be a minotaur brandishing wolverine claws. Neat.

I believe I've said before that German Nobile is the next Jacen Burrows? He totally is. His art is depraved.

Of course, the subject matter Nobile is given to portray is depraved. Chicken-egg problem? XD

Ew. Yeah, that's more the kind of wrong I was expecting. And also: ew. #Incitatus

If Felix refers to him as "husband to a murdered wife, father to a murdered son" I'm throwing #Caligula against the wall.

OK. He came close but didn't directly quote.

"What would I tell him anyway? The emperor's immortal and his horse is a talking beast from the depths of Hades?" XD

Weaving in actual shit #Caligula did like "riding across the Bay of Baiae" is a good touch.

Oh, and effect this issue ends with #Caligula proclaiming "No more Mr. Nice Immortal Evil Emperor" XD

THE SUMMING UP

Caligula is gruesome and moronic and over the top and taken on its own merits could give comics a very bad name indeed. Its every page brims with pure and unadulterated wrong, as befits its subject matter: the only way the real Caligula could have been crazier or more evil would have been if he was unkillable, as this version of him is. The Felix of whom I tweet is our point of view character, someone whose family was murdered on Caligula's orders and has already tried to murder the emperor in revenge, only to find that yeah, he couldn't. But now he's stuck in the position by which he infiltrated the palace; he's part of Caligula's entourage, has attracted the attention both of his sister (I can't tell if she's supposed to be Drusilla, Agrippina or Livilla, all three of whom were real pieces of work) and his horse, Incitatus, whom the real Caligula made a Roman Senator but who is here imbued with a whole 'nother kind of evil: Incitatus talks, and likes to rape strapping young men. Ew. Which is all to say that this is a bad, bad book and that I'm probably a bad, bad person for liking it, even though I mostly just want to see where else Lapham is going to find to embroider on the already lavishly awful story of Little Boot.

BALTIMORE: THE CURSE BELLS, Issue 1

THE CREATORS

Baltimore is another entry in the Dark Horse's vast and teeming Mignola-verse. This comic series is an offshoot of a novel Mike Mignola co-wrote with Christopher Golden, and they both have a hand in the series as well. Ben Stenbeck, a major Dark Horse/Mignola workhorse, is on pencils and here, too, Dave Stewart is on colors.

THE SCHTICK

Monsters are overrunning Europe, and Baltimore, the only one who can put an end to these horrors, must find and kill Haigus, the vampire responsible for this chaos. Following reports that Haigus is holed up in a cloister, Baltimore finds a haven full of death and black magic, and the creature at the heart of his obsession! - From Dark Horse's Website

THE TWEETS

Another I feel I've waited forever for. New #Baltimore!

#Baltimore is a late 19th/early 20th century monster-hunter in the Mignolaverse for those who don't know him.

#Balitmore is still chasing the one-eyed vampire he failed to destroy during WWI. I remember now 8)

#Baltimore vs a whole den of vampires. Gawd yes.

Bwahaha. Standard "cool guy walking away from explosions" panel. #GuessTheyCouldntResist

So it appears #Baltimore has picked up a journalist sidekick. Ho hum. But as long as he's amusing.

THE SUMMING UP

Lord Baltimore is a great, tragic character, who lost his family to the same vampire he now hunts. As Stenbeck draws him he is unprepossessing, with just a hint of badassery as he tracks down Haigus. What I've chiefly enjoyed about this series to date (an earlier arc "The Plague Ships" wrapped up a few months ago) was its exploration of the idea of vampirism as a disease that was camouflaged and perhaps aggravated by other European plagues through history and by the flu epidemic that accompanied World War I. The sidekick he has picked up wants to make a name for himself writing the definitive guide to modern ("modern" in this case being "post WWI") vampires who has imposed himself on our hero as the price for sharing his clues about Haigus' doings and whereabouts, which is not terribly original but as I said, I'll tolerate it if he stays amusing. So far, so good. We don't know, as yet, how this supposed "Curse Bell" relates to what else is going on in the story but I trust that we will before long. This isn't great comics storytelling for the ages, but it's a solidly enjoyable title that looks to continue as same. It may be suffering slightly from comparison with the comic I read next...

HELLBOY: THE FURY, Issue 2

THE CREATORS

It's Hellboy. Original creator Mike Mignola is scripting this very important story arc and the great Duncan Fegredo is bringing it to glorious eye-loving life, with, of course, Dave Stewart on colors.

THE SCHTICK

While Hellboy makes one last stand against the Queen of Blood the war between the forces of good and evil rages on the battlefield with heaps of dead monsters and knights! - From Dark Horse's website

THE TWEETS

OK. Finally up to Issue 3 of #Hellboy: The Fury. @inkybat and other pals have been raving over this one

Picking up right where we left off. #Hellboy vs a trash talking dragon. @duncanfegredo run amuck destroying a village 8)

I love how this beast resembles the prow monsters on Viking ships.

Love all the monsters frolicking in Mab's mind's eye. They look positively playful on the scorched earth XD

Now THAT's how to end an arc. Holy crap. I can see why everyone's so excited about where #Hellboy is going.

THE SUMMING UP

Okay, right off, I was wrong about this issue ending the arc; there's one more to go, though I'm not sure where it can go from here; it looks awfully like Hellboy established a pyrrhic victory over his nemesis at the end of this one. Maybe he's just resting, and I was just overreacting to the teaser ad for the next big arc, Hellboy in Hell, due out next year. All that aside, this is proving a fantastic culmination to a long collaboration between Mignola and Fegredo (and Stewart, who simply exceeded himself in coloring this eye-popping stuff). It's apocalypse done as gorgeously as possible and portends yet more greatness.

ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST, Issue 2

THE CREATORS

The fantastic Chris "I, Zombie" Roberson is writing this brand new entry in Michael Moorcock's multiversal tales of the Eternal Champion in his many incarnations, with Francesco Biagini continuing to impress me on pencils and Stephen Downer coloring the madness. Boom! Studios is the publisher.

THE SCHTICK

Signs continue to appear throughout the Multiverse that the Cosmic Balance is in peril, and the Eternal Champion is caught in the cross-hairs! Across worlds, Elric, Hawkmoon and Corum begin to face the force that threatens to overpower them all, while Eric Beck, a modern-day video game designer, must acknowledge that his reoccurring dreams of a Pale Prince aren’t all in his head. - From Boom! Studios website

THE TWEETS

#Hellboy vs Nimue put me in the mood for more of #Elric: The Balance Lost. How fortunate that I have issue 2 here!

Oswald Freaking Bastable. Oh, hell yes.

Continuing theme of mouths were they don't belong, you guys gotta see this one demon.

Not just vagina dentata, but boob dentata, jaw dentata (one mouth, four (?) jaws), maybe even armpit dentata.

Ooh, @chrisroberson "Spammer's Fishlings" is my new favorite expletive!

My detect allegory senses are tingling big time about this Cult of the One Arrow 8)

I say, the page visualizing the multiverse is a bit sublime. Would be moreso without the dreary inset panels across the top though.

Haw haw! The realm of the dentate demons used to be the "Republic of Texas" and they let the chaos in because it was an energy source.

The dentate/deranged buildings are a lot like how I picture post-Melding Plague Chasm City #AlastairReynolds

This continues to be a pretty groovy take on the Moorcockian Multiverse. Applause!

THE SUMMING UP

It's hard not to see the Tea Party and its in Roberson's Cult of the One Arrow, imposing its version of order with military and political force in whatever universe it finds itself, in its different (but perhaps more plausible) way just as icky and horrific as the disgusting chaos monsters Biagini has imagined for the worlds where the balance is tilting the other way. Couple that with the moral message of the Republic of Texas, tapping into "color spots" where chaos was originally trickling into that world and tearing wider gaps through which it could spill in and be harnessed as an energy source, to that world's ruin and you can see why my allegory sense tingled so. This is a Comic with a Message, but it's one that Moorcock surely must approve; his heroes are servants of the balance, not of either side. Roberson and Biagini keep drawing on that pool of heroes, too; I may yet get to see my dream of Jerry Cornelius popping up (though hey, Oswald Bastable is close!). If you love Michael Moorcock (and who doesn't?) you should definitely be getting this series. And if you don't know him, this is as good a place as any to start finding out what you've been missing.

'68, Issue 3

THE CREATORS

Hey, I couldn't get through Sunday Comics without something from Image, could I? This one is written by Mark Kidwell and drawn by Nat Jones and Tim B. Vigil, strangers none of them to comics and to monsters.

THE SCHTICK

Visions of home-brewed hell take center stage as an anti-war protest on a California college campus turns into a cannibalistic massacre at the clawing hands of the hungry undead. Two lost soldiers fight their way across a jungle wasteland teeming with rot. And in Vietnam, Agent Declan Rule reveals his true reasons for being in country. - From Image Comics' website

THE TWEETS

Issue 3 of #68. Zombies in the Vietnam War. Oh yes.

Haw. Was wondering why this issue was "Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies" - the morgue is called Penny Lane... #68

...Because they've laid tin on the floor &put pennies on the corpses' eyes. If they rise as zombies you hear 'em moving XD

Oho! The zombie plague has reached the states and is spreading through anti-war rallies. Didn't see that coming.

ZOMBIE HIPPIES! And yes, you can tell the difference.

Wrist slit bathtub suicide hippie zombies! This just gets better and better (and gorier)

Well, developments are certainly developing. #68 is still giving up the good stuff 8)

THE SUMMING UP

This book was already a weird one, going way beyond what you'd expect from a zombie/war mash-up, and that was even before this issue took the story to the home front, where we not only find our hero's girl two-timing him with a bunch of hippies and hooked on drugs, but she's soon to go participate in the famous anti-war demonstrations at Berkeley, where a provocateur is planning to shoot some cops under cover of the riot. When his shot hits the wrong target and that target is reanimated as a hungry hippy zombie, the chaos is unbelievable and hilariously narrated by a reporter hovering over the scene in a chopper. There is possibly more allegory coming on here, as a lot of this issue is focused on the irony of a peace ralley degenerating into a cannibalistic orgy, but it doesn't work as well as Elric's if that's indeed the intent. Regardless, it works just fine as a ridiculous spectacle. ZOMBIE HIPPIES. They're the ones with faces full of blood, coming right for you with bared teeth.

GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES, Issue 2

THE CREATORS

Mark "Unthinkable" Sable is writing this one, also for Image (who is being either brave or reckless in publishing two zombie/war comics at once; I can't decide), with Paul Azeceta on art duty.

THE SCHTICK

The new C.O. of a remote outpost in Afghanistan has his hands full. If the terror of the Taliban and the mutiny of a Marine sniper weren't bad enough, his squad is now under attack by the undead! GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES doesn't just show you the face of modern warfare - it rips it right off. - From Image Comics' website

THE TWEETS

Issue 2 of #GraveyardOfEmpires now. More military madness for #SundayComics

I haven't seen this many zombie-ish naked old men since Rare Exports*** XD

Flashbacks give a nice look at what it must be like for ordinary Afghans to live between the US forces & Taliban demands.

And in the present day, the bullet impacts' resemblance to poppies is surely not coincidental. Strong iconography.

Is... is that guy stabbing himself in the eye?

Mad doctor implanting bombs in zombies. Really? Apparently so.

The cultural clash is really brilliantly handled in this one.

THE SUMMING UP

Mark Sable first came to my attention when, famously, he and his early script for Unthinkable were detained by the TSA at an airport. Unthinkable concerned a think tank whose job it was to dream up horrible scenarios as yet not dreamed up by terrorists and other America-haters, and to try to design ways for us to cope with them and so yes, it featured a whole lot of imaginary terrorist plots. It was ridiculous that he got detained for it and, while I'd been planning to read Unthinkable anyway, this incident only strengthened my resolve. In Graveyard of Empires, Sable continues to show considerable talent for occupying the mindset of the other side; in this case not so much the enemy as the ordinary people caught in the middle. This issue largely concerns the plight of a farmer, who was growing wheat at the U.S. occupation's behest until the Taliban threatened his family to coerce him to grow opium poppies (as I tweeted, much is made of the poppy as an icon for this series, its stylized image doubling for a fresh bullet wound in firefights. It's very effective), and then is later visited by U.S. forces wanting to know why he won't grow wheat for them. I'm not sure, but the poor guy seems eventually to be one of the undead naked old men attacking the U.S. compound; even in death he gets no rest and can't sit out the conflicts. This is sobering, devastating stuff, for all its zombie-killing thrills.

And that's it for this week. Back soon with more Sunday Comics!

____

*Jeremy C. Shipp is a writer of bizarro fiction with whom I enjoy collaborating on stuff (we're in an anthology together and I frequently narrate audio versions of his stories for podcasts) and who has a well-documented affection for garden gnomes.

**MYMHM is the Twitter handle of Juan Bagnell, half of the daffy duo behind the Movies You May Have Missed video podcast and website. Click here for their review of the fascinating Mexican sci-fi extravaganza, Sleep Dealer.

***Rare Exports is a Finnish film I saw at last year's Toronto International Film Festival: a Christmas/Horror/Action/Comedy in which Santa Claus is an ancient Lovecraftian horror entombed in ice and his helpers, hordes of naked old men with long white beards, rampage about the landscape in all their naked old man glory. Once seen, it cannot but unseen, but you'll be too busy laughing your ass off to care.

Sunday Comics Round-Up, Part II - August 7

A brand new day, but I've unfinished business. Without further ado, the rest of this week's SundayComics round-up! Again, it's all two-fers.

SCREAMLAND, Issues 2 & 3

THE CREATORS

This is another Image Comics book - Image is definitely my go-to publisher for interesting, original stuff these days. Writers Harold Sipe and Christopher Sebela, best known for their cryptozoological romp Proof, are covering similar but sillier ground here. Lee Leslie and Kevin Millon (of Hack/Slash fame) are on pencils and inks and Buster Moody, also probably best known for Hack/Slash, is the colorist.

THE SCHTICK

In a world where movie monsters are real, most of them are just looking for work in an industry dominated by 3D, CGI and other scary acronyms. Forced to hustle their past glory on the convention circuit, Wolfman Cal London and 'Space Path' star Travis Walters put their scheduled appearances aside to stop the screening of a legendary monster porn film that threatens to ruin the careers of feature creatures everywhere. - from Image Comics' website

THE TWEETS

Oh man, and I have two issues of #Screamland, two! No wonder the #SundayComics bag is so heavy. Learn from me. Read 'em every week!

Reporting a murder to 911 -- of the Invisible Man no less -- "Of course there's a body. We just can't see it."

I'm still recovering from the Black Lagoonish Devil Fish in a red speedo from last issue, mind.

And so now all the monsters are going to solve the Invisible Man's murder since the police won't? Awesome.

Oh, they're all coming up with scenarios to blame each other. And they're hilarious!

Still can't shake the idea that these two characters are based on @briankeene and @mikeoliveri. Adds to the lulz.

But Travis is probably really based on William Shatner 8)

Moving to the preview for next issue. Light lettering on fancy-ass mauve backgrounded text boxes = unreadable.

Especially when most of the background color is a slightly darker shade of mauve. GRR.

Between the glare off the glossy paper and squinting to read the text boxes I have the start of a headache now 8(

LOL: The Mass, a gelatinous alien, oozing off with a tire, a surprised looking cow, and a kitty visible inside him.

Why yes, sometimes comics should be funny. And #Screamland totally is.

Jason analog (slasher villain): I dunno which is funnier, the 12-step for psycho killers or the love story.

Oh wait: BORN AGAIN reformed married family man Jason analog. Hee hee.

Ah, such pathos. When even a vampire gets chewed up and spit out by the Holywood starlet machine..

THE SUMMING UP

There is a lot that's very wrong with Screamland, by which I mean (mostly) right. On the whole this is, if you can't tell from my tweets, a funny idea being executed in funny ways. We've moved on since the original solicitation - the "legendary monster porn film" is still sort of the McGuffin but as plot devices go it's mostly been replaced by a murder mystery; someone has offed The Invisible Man and it's probably part of an attempt to keep the film under wraps. We're still kind of getting to know all the supporting players here through the device of Cal and Travis's half-assed attempts to follow up on half-baked scenarios casting each character as the murderer: a masked psycho killer named Slasher, a gelantinous alien named Mass and a weirdly aging vampire bombshell. It's all quite ridiculous but it passes the internally-consistent plausibility test: it's ridiculous in just the way a world in which movie monsters are real, with threatened livelihoods, should be ridiculous. And for the most part it's a great looking book, with fantastic, cartoony character designs - but then there are those captions I complained of in the tweets, of which there are quite a lot. And in these, just often enough to be really annoying, weird aesthetic choices have been given precedence over readability. Different characters' stories and perspectives get different colors and the scheme is strictly adhered to, resulting in some unfortunate clashes (mauve on orange, for instance. Ew) and darker colors, like that mauve, with thin black text inside, are all but impossible to read. If that is addressed in future issues, I'll enjoy this book even more than I already do.

GREEN WAKE, Issues 4 and 5

THE CREATORS

See what I mean about reading a lot of Image's offerings? The company has an eye for interesting ideas and creators, and Green Wake is no exception. I'm pretty impressed with all that writer Kurtis Wiebe has currently got going on, penning not only this series but also The Intrepids, a book that is about as different from this one as it could possibly be. Here Wiebe is teamed up with artist Riley Rossmo, another Proof veteran, here doing some very different, often McKeeveresque, work.

THE SCHTICK

A riveting tale of loss and horror. In the forgotten town of Green Wake, a string of grisly mutilations leads Morley Mack on the trail of a young woman named Ariel, who is the prime suspect. But when a stranger with startling connections to Ariel arrives under mysterious circumstances, Morley unravels a dark plot with a shocking link to his past. - from Image Comics' website.

THE TWEETS

And guess what ELSE I have two of? That'd be Green Wake. What's up, @kurtisjwiebe?

Oh lordy. From melancholy longing to balls-out Grand Guignol in the flick of a page. FWOOM!

Oh, okay. That wasn't Carl she was boning and eviscerating? But it *is* Carl who jumped in to save her from the toothy blob man?

Did Carl's necklace of eyeballs (at least I think that's what it was) just fuse with his head and neck? Yuck!

This is turning, as I proceed through Issue 4, into a bit of a heartbreaker.

"That's what Green Wake is. It's a monster that feeds on the guilt of our past."

Going to have nightmares about Carl's face in that close-up. Every emotion you could think of, all at once.

One more issue of Green Wake. I'm still bewildered but I'm hanging on. Are any of these guys I've seen Carl?

I feel like I've landed in the middle of a Robert McCammon novel. Which is awesome, but ugly!

Still don't like the faux cursive lettering in the text boxes, though at least in this issue its on a simple BG

THE SUMMING UP

For me, Green Wake has been an anomaly: a comic that suffers from the high quality of its art. That's a strange thing to say, but it's true: the ravishing, intricate, occasionally grotesque, expressionist moodiness of Rossmo's work distracted me from grasping what was going on in the story for a long time, at first mostly just because it held my attention so completely, and then continuously because at times the character design is just too ambiguous. My plaint above, wondering if any of the people I'd seen in Issue 4 was actually Carl (the character with the "startling connections" to Ariel)? Not an exaggeration. Who is who (largely, for the ordinary humans, of which there are only a few, a matter of hair color, which is often obscured by lighting and other scenic elements) and which of them is doing what has rarely been so unclear; I've struggled and pored to figure it all out and I may still be wrong. But the fact that I was willing to struggle and pore says something: there is a lot going on here and very little of it is on the surface, not unlike in Ted McKeever's Meta4, my favorite comic from 2010 (and the introduction to the collected edition of which is written by yours truly, btw). The story is taking place in a weird, liminal space that only sort of approximates a town -- a very dark, spooky, Lovecraftian town in which a large portion of the population (none of whom is originally from Green Wake) seems to be in the process of turning into a frog. Everybody is haunted by past misdeeds and an inability to figure out how he or she (but mostly he: the demonic will o'the wisp, Ariel, is the only woman) got there, and hesitant to cop to anything. That all of this seems to be an allegory on the destruction of the author's marriage, just as Meta4 treated largely on McKeever's experience of hard-won sobriety, just adds to the weird, nearly impenetrable dreaminess of this book -- and its melancholy. I'm glad I did the work to finally figure out what the hell was (or might be) going on, but I'm also just a tiny bit wounded for the experience. I will, though, be on board for the continuation of Green Wake, for while the Ariel story arc is wrapped up, there are still lots of questions to be explored -- such as what the hell is up with the frogs.

THE MISSION, Issues 5 & 6

THE CREATORS

OK, Image is totally not paying me to blog these, but yes, this is another Image Comics release. Erich and Jon Hoeber, best known for writing the screenplay to Red, are writing this, teamed up with Werther Dell'edera, whom I know mostly from the bits he's done in the searing Greek Street but most of my friends probably know from G.I. Joe.

THE SCHTICK

Paul, an average working guy, finds his life upended when he's approached by a mysterious figure who tells him he's been chosen for a mission in the battle between good and evil -- the mission is murder. Is it real or is Paul losing his mind? - from Image Comics' website.

THE TWEETS

Head shaky moment. Though for a few panels I'd picked up Jennifer Blood by mistake. The wife resembles her a bit.

"There's nothing you can do to me that's worse than what you're making me do to myself." Uh, you sure? XD

Keep waiting for this to turn into Malignant Man. It is possible I read too many comics. 

See? I knew there was a way to make it worse. But this is all getting a tad predictable.

I'm weirdly distracted by Paul's anime hair.

Gah. With this art style and coloring scheme, wifey's tears look like streams of liquid mercury. Pretty much fail.

Issue 6 of #TheMission and the cover has Paul with a blowtorch. Pretty sure he's not welding. Cringe.

Sinister, melodramatic shadows suddenly cross Luke's (?) face with nothing casting them. Snort.

Bleargh. My cringe was true. Wincewincewincewincewince.

Semi-surprise twist ending to Issue 6. I'm still in. But just barely. Don't dig on torture pr0n too much.

THE SUMMING UP

The Mission may lose me. From the start it's been uneasily straddling the border between being evocative and derivative, specifically of Patricia Highsmith's best Ripley novel, Ripley's Game, in which the titular rogue manipulates the hopes and fears of a man with terminal cancer to make of him a willing tool for assassinating Ripley's enemies. Here Ripley is replaced by a supernatural figure claiming to be an angel, and instead of dangling the promise of better doctors and treatments and money for the widow and child, this figure claims the power to inflict cancer not only on Paul but on his family if Paul does not cooperate. And that's not even where it gets ugly. I mentioned a blowtorch, and torture porn, and predictability. Even the semi-twist at the end of Issue 6 wasn't that much of a surprise; it was an obvious twist to make. I'm going to give this book one more chance but may drop it.

CHEW, Issue 19

THE CREATORS

The Mighty John Layman, veteran of many superhero comics, none of which I have read, is writing this inspired insanity, teamed up with the cartoony awesome of Rob Guillory in what has to be one of the weirdest books Image has ever put out. I'm pretty sure everyone who works on this project is batshit in the best possible way.

THE SCHTICK

Tony Chu is a cop with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychicimpressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. It's a dirty job, and Tony has to eat terrible things in the name of justice. And if that wasn't bad enough, the government has figured out Tony Chu's secret. They have plans for him... whether he likes it or not.

THE TWEETS

Ready to dote on something a little more light-hearted now. Though since I'm kind of a sick bastard, I've chosen Chew No. 19

Cover art strongly suggests Tony's sister's gonna maneuver him into a bit of xenophagy. Awesome. And gross. And Awesome.

Talk about starting off with a bang. Actually many bangs. Not that kind of bang, gutter brains.

Bwahahaha. Lettering ambiguities and context from setting led me to read "manifesto" as "manipesto."

"Disclaimer: this never happens." Chew plays that trick a lot - but it NEVER stops being funny.

Nastiest pit stains ever. I often suspect @rob_guillory watched a LOT of Ren & Stimpy when he was a kid.

Oh the Easter Eggs. "FDA: We choke the chicken." Really.

ZOMG. NASA"s mission amidst the avian flu outbreak. Um. Um. Bwahahahahaha. Gasp.

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. It's even worse than I'd dared to imagine from the cover.

Another Fringe shout-out. Also Star Wars, Lost, JFK, Spam... XD

Chalkboard graffiti: "Charlie Sheen is a cylon!" XD

This is one of the most elegantly structured issues yet. Major kudos to The Mighty Layman.

THE SUMMING UP

By now, I shouldn't have to tell anyone that Chew is a great comic. That's what the Eisner awards are for. I've been with it from the beginning and have never been disappointed -- indeed, it's gotten better as Layman and Guillory have developed its uniqueness. From its initial schtick, the story has grown to encompass espionage plots, aliens, cock fighting and yes, romance -- all peppered with outrageous easter eggs courtesy of Guillory. Reading an issue of Chew is an exercise in careful scrutiny for buried jokes -- like "Charlie Sheen is a Cylon." And I mentioned story structure -- Layman is become a master at this, having special fun with the trope of exploring what might have happened had not the events in the actual story happened. Possibilities loop back on themselves with just the right balance of subtlety and obviousness, so when Tony's twin sister punches out an unmasked conspirator seemingly out of the blue, you know exactly why, and what he would have done if she hadn't -- which would only be the case if she didn't have the power of reading the future/intentions from what she eats or bites (just as Tony gets the history), which is how she knows the dude deserves a punch in the nose. Simply awesome.

And that's it for this week's Sunday Comics. I still, though, have a backlog, and probably a good stack waiting for me at Heroes Only come Wednesday. Until then, read your comics!

Sunday Comics Round-Up, Part II

So yesterday I began a trial of doing a more formal blog entry around my #SundayComics tweets and put up a balloon on Google+ to see if people want me to keep doing it, because I don't want to waste the considerable effort it's taking to do what little formatting I'm doing (It took 2 1/2 hours to assemble yesterday's post, and probably only about 45 minutes of that was actual writing). I'm still open to feedback on this; a few people have said they dig it so.. I think I'll be template shopping after I finish this one, because half of why the formatting is such a PITA is that this template forces me to hand-code things like paragraph breaks and italics/bold and the like. Ugh.

I broke off yesterday to go to bed after getting as far as Dollhouse -- which means that really, the best is yet to come out of my Sunday Comics extravaganza!



CRIMINAL MACABRE/THE GOON: WHEN FREAKS COLLIDE

THE CREATORS

This is a cross-over of two popular titles from Dark Horse Comics, a mash-up of the work of two sets of creators whose work I adore. Steve Niles writes Criminal Macabre, a series of comics and novels concerning the adventures of hard-boiled detective Cal McDonald, most of whose cases hinge on something unsavory and supernatural; while Eric Powell is responsible for The Goon, a giant palooka who specializes in monster-killing and wisecracks at the expense of a certain sparkly vampire franchise. Christopher Mitten, who seems a relative newcomer, took care of the art and did a fantastic job of making the two worlds blend seamlessly.

THE SCHTICK

Cal McDonald, the drug-fueled paranormal private dick, goes head to head with Lonely Street's zombie-pulverizing Goon, in a weird in-between world full of monsters, horror, and humor! - from Dark Horse's website

THE TWEETS

On to something I've long anticipated. #CriminalMacabreGoon. @steveniles and @goonguy drawn by Christopher Mitten. Jesus.

When Freaks Collide indeed.

Snort. Story by @SteveNiles Farts and Negativity by @goonguy (Eric Powell). Credits page win.

"Scrapin' cake and two-thirds of a hog off the ceiling ain't no way to spend a birthday." XD

"Hey Mo, check it. The Little Rascals did steroids like Carrot Top" - Cal McDonald on first beholding the Goon and Franky XD

Crossovers are mostly silly, but @darkhorsecomics does them well

Bwahahahahahhahah.

THE SUMMING UP

This was fun. As much a dialogue between Niles and Powell -- witness the snarky observation from Cal re the Goon's appearance -- as an actual installment in either series. Something has brought both parties into a strange new world (nicely skirting the problem of blending milieus) full mostly of Mafia werewolves; at first the two protagonists blame each other and brawl, while their smarter sidekicks try to assess what's really going on. As sometimes happens, though, the impulse to, as Andrew Rilstone likes to describe it, take the Cal McDonald action figure and Goon action figure out of their boxes and put them side by side is driving the issue more than an actual story, which is too bad. The goofy amusement of watching them interact was burnished to a nice sheen, no denying, but I found myself not caring why they were there, so when Mo'Lock (Cal's ghoul sidekick) and Franky found a magic book that could make anything happen I just sighed. But maybe this is just setting up all the pieces for more story later, as is strongly suggested by the last page's hoovering up of yet another beloved Dark Horse monster-fighter into the mix (hence the laughter of the last tweet). We'll see!



ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST #1

THE CREATORS

BOOM! Studios is releasing this book, an adaptation of a beloved character -- or, arguably, characters, as I'll touch on below -- from a whole bunch of Michael Moorcock novels. Chris Roberson, classically famous for his DC superhero work on titles like Superman but beloved to me for the amazing I, Zombie, is writing and Francesco Biagini, whose work is new to me, is the artist.

THE SCHTICK

For 40 years comic fandom has thrilled to the exploits of Elric since his introduction in Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian in the early 1970s. Neil Gaiman called Elric’s creator Michael Moorcock “my model for what a writer was” while Warren Ellis said he is one of the “eight core sites in my creative genome.” Now the godfather of the Multiverse teams up with hot New York Times bestseller Chris Roberson (SUPERMAN, iZOMBIE, STAN LEE'S STARBORN) for an ongoing series that sees a crisis break out across multiple worlds with Moorcock's other two most famous fantasy franchise characters, Corum of the Scarlet Robe and Dorian Hawkmoon! The workings of Fate are being tampered across the Multiverse, upsetting the Cosmic Balance. Elric is on a quest to restore The Balance and save the Multiverse from ruin! Elric, Corum, and Hawkmoon are forced into action far and wide, but will they fight on the side of Law...or Chaos? - from BOOM! Studios' website

THE TWEETS

Looking at the cover art.. I dunno. I never pictured #Elric with a six-pack...

OK, #Elric is doing some pretty interesting stuff with the Eternal Champion and ripping it from the headlines. Digging it.

Wow. It's like a roll call. Will I see Jerry Cornelius too? XD

The chaos critters in the #Elric scenes are gloriously OTT icky.

Nice afterword by @neilhimself. Glad to see I'm not the only one whose entire allowance once went to Moorcock books.

THE SUMMING UP

I might as well be genetically programmed to like this book. BOOM! et al would have to really cock it up before I'd drop it -- but given Roberson's wonderful track record that's highly unlikely. This first issue is setting up a doozy of a premise and, as I observed, hauling in many aspects of the Eternal Champion - Moorcock's Hero With A Thousand Faces, different incarnations of whose stories he has told in multiple series of novels, most of which I devoured as a teenager. As I tweeted, most of my allowance and a lot of my paychecks from lifeguarding went into Moorcock's pockets. Rather than adapting any of those into comics form, this book is boldly creating new material, though adhering to the classic trope of something disturbing the Cosmic Balance between Law and Chaos throughout the multiverse. Our title character, the albino ex-emperor Elric, is traversing the multiverse and finding that many worlds are hopelessly lost to Chaos, overrun with outrageously mutated monsters -- Biagini did not hold back on imagining grotesqueries aplenty (an overall trope for these monsters is mouths full of big sharp nasty pointy teeth erupting all over parts of the body that do not ordinarily have mouths); meanwhile Corum and Dorian Hawkmoon, other aspects of the Champion, are encountering their own difficulties, and a young man in our own world, Eric (another albino; his last name of Beck strongly suggests he is a member of the family Elric founded centuries ago during a prior visit to our world) is watching aghast as his twin brother is whipping up support for a Tea Party-esque Law & Order party complete with scarily armed militia. It all feels very Moorcock and again, I'm so in.



WITCH DOCTOR #1 AND 2

THE CREATORS

Witch Doctor is coming out from Image Comics' and Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint. The writer is Brandon Seifert, whose work I've only seen a bit of in Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan; the art is by Lukas Ketner, who has done a Walking Dead cover and worked in the same bit of Transmetropolitan that Seifert did; the two seem to be a pretty solid team.

THE SCHTICK

HOUSE M.D. MEETS FRINGE IN THE FIRST SKYBOUND ORIGINAL FROM ROBERT KIRKMAN's NEW COMICS IMPRINT! Meet Vincent Morrow, a doctor looking for a vaccine... for the apocalypse! In this stand-alone first issue, a family needs Dr. Morrow's help with their son's illness: Demonic possession. But when Morrow attempts an experimental cure, he discovers the boy's disease isn't all spinning heads and pea soup - it's like nothing you've seen before! Horror gets a brain transplant in WITCH DOCTOR, the book WARREN ELLIS calls 'Mental.' - from Image's website

THE TWEETS

My Sunday is loaded with Grand Guignol. On to #WitchDoctor which promises more of the same it appears. Two issues here.

Oh, and it's set in Arkham, at least this first scene, but it's Arkham OREGON. Hmm.

Ha ha ha ha. Priest/faith healer vs physician but the latter is a combo of House and Alice Hotwire XD

"Get a C.T. scan." "A what?"..."A sciencey thing at the doctort place" XD

"'Possession' is just infection by a BABY BOTFLY FROM HELL." Oh yes, I like this #WitchDoctor yes I do.

"I've only seen one case this bad in the literature, and it was in the Bible!"

And I have Issue 2 of #WitchDoctor, which makes me unreasonably happy. Hilarious cover art too.

Lukas Ketner really likes to draw saliva ribbons stretching across open mouths. Even human ones. Ew.

But seriously. If you like grotesque art, Ketner's right up Jacen Burrows' alley.

So yeah, #WitchDoctor is a keeper, and possibly my favorite so far today.

THE SUMMING UP

Witch Doctor did indeed turn out to be my favorite reads of the day. The protagonist is hilariously irascible, though as I observed he reminds me at least as much of Alice Hotwire as of House; he partakes of her angry contempt for people who take a superstitious view of the supernatural phenomena of which he has made a lifetime's carefully scientific study and I can definitely imagine him saying, as Hotwire's dad did "Fine. Give it all back and die at age 30 like you're supposed to" to the anti-science cranks who oppose, e.g., childhood vaccinations. It's all very stylish and witty and visually grotesque -- Ketner really does remind me of Jacen Burrows, the current go-to guy for really wrong art that crawls with detail and demented lines. Issue #2 continued just as strong and funny and sick and weird and this all bodes well for this becoming a book I really look forward to every month.



ROBERT BLOCH'S THAT HELLBOUND TRAIN #1 AND 2

THE CREATORS

IDW is publishing this adaptation of a Robert Bloch short story. The task of adapting it into a comics script has been given to John and Joe Lansdale who between them have a long history of deftly handling just this kind of task as well as being responsible for a lot of prose fiction in horror and other genres. The art is by Dave Wachter, another guy I've only seen doing bits of Transmetropolitan but who has a resume full of horror comics that I'm not familiar with but might have to dig up because he does great, moody work.

THE SCHTICK

Take a trip back in time on Robert Bloch’s That Hellbound Train! Join Martin, an out-of-luck orphan, as he struggles to fulfill the American dream. As Martin comes of age, fate conspires against him at every turn. On the verge of giving up hope, our young protagonist is visited by a monstrous train, one whose conductor might just have a ticket to fame and riches... if Martin is willing to pay the price!

THE TWEETS (I didn't tweet a lot on these, partly from running out of steam and partly because I just got absorbed in reading them)

I'm not familiar with the original story so I've been curious to see what the Lansdales would do with it. #ThatHellboundTrain

I like the skull forming from the smoke of #ThatHellboundTrain even if it is an obvious trope

Is that an Al Capone cameo I see? Awesome #ThatHellboundTrain

Nice touch on panel where Martin paints - his roller is in the process of either generating or obliterating the image

Continued high quality in second issue of #ThatHellboundTrain. @MrsJwNic is very quiet over there reading the first 8)

THE SUMMING UP

It's hard to go wrong with source material like a Robert Bloch story, even if most of the prose is stripped down; what's lost in verbiage is gained in dark and moody art and haunting, creepy faces -- even our protagonist, as an innocent youngster, looks more than a little wicked, as he should. As I said, I hadn't read the original story and when I saw this comic coming I decided to wait and see what the comic did with it first. This is a pact-with-the-devil story with a neat little twist; Martin hasn't asked for wealth or fame or any of that stuff that can easily be twisted, Monkey's Paw-style; instead he's come away with a watch that will stop time, but can only be used once. His intent is to stop it when he achieves happiness (quite a challenge for a kid who's had such a poor start in life); his challenge through the rest of the tale is to find the right moment to stop the watch, made more complicated by the machinations of the conductor-devil who gave it to him. This looks to be as much a melancholy as a scary book based on these two issues I read on Sunday.

I finished one more and started another on Sunday, but I feel like I overdid it and didn't give the one the attention it needed and didn't get the finish the other, and so I'll stop here. And, I guess, start looking for a template that doesn't force me to do quite so much hand-coding to do this simple bit of formatting I've done here. Grr.