July 28, 2010 0

Weekly Comic Shopping List 7/28/10 addendum– Vampire Tales

By Scott Cederlund in comics
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I just got back from the shop and I found an incredible book from Marvel– Vampire Tales V1 (cover is above.)  That's a really ugly and generic cover.  Sure, it's a nice image in and of itself but it's weak when compared to the original Vampire Tales covers (check here for the cover gallery.) This book reprints for first 3 issues of Marvel's 1973 Vampire Tales magazine.  There's names like Romita, Thomas, Steranko, Bernet, Maroto and Marcos contributing stories in this collection. 

The book itself if interesting.  It's about 3/4 the size of a standard comic, well smaller than the original magazines I assume.  But the printing is really nice and clear, much better than any of the Marvel Essentials which have collected Marvel's magazines.  I would love to see Marvel use this format though to get all that stuff in print.  Heck, I'd love for Dark Horse to go back and start putting the Creepy and Eerie stuff out like this as well.

I wasn't really that excited about hitting the comic shop today but I'm glad I did and found this book.  I can't wait to get home and start reading it.

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July 28, 2010 0

Weekly Comic Shopping List

By Scott Cederlund in comics
Really kind of a light week, which is nice.  I think I'll end up catching up on stuff I already have.
  • Batman Return Of Bruce Wayne #4 – This is the issue that was supposed to be drawn by Cameron Stewart but wasn’t, right?  I think it’s now drawn by Georges Geanty and I’m excited to see what he can do on a non-Buffy book.  I’ve really dug his art there and want to see what he can do on a period piece like this one– Batman in the old west.
  • Four Eyes Vol 1 Forged In Flames TP– I enjoyed Joe Kelly’sI Kill Giants and his Spider-Man stories lately.  This is the collection of an Image series that I know next to nothing about.  Hopefully it’s good.
  • Walking Dead Vol 12 Life Among Them TP– So, I guess after years of not caring, I’m into this book now.  I’ll get this collection sometime.
  • Rasl #8– Rasl is probably the book I look most forward to seeing.  Tesla, alternate realities and art thieves all merge together in Jeff Smith’s book to create something unique. It’s great to see Smith be able to do something that has the potential to be as great as Bone was and be completely different at the same time.

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July 27, 2010 0

Now what? Thoughts on Mad Men “Public Relations”

By Scott Cederlund in Review, television
“Who is Don Draper?”

It should be a simple question. It is a reporter’s question, trying to do a simple profile piece on the new creative darling of Madison Avenue, Don Draper. Or is that Dick Whitman? It echoes a question from last season, as Don was trick or treating with his family and a neighbor jokingly asked “who are you supposed to be?” In “Public Relations,” the first episode of season 4, Draper brushes off the question. It’s not one he wants to answer. The last time he honestly answered the question, after Betty discovered the box that contained Dick Whitman’s life, he opened himself up and lost his family. He told Betty of his life as Dick Whitman and how he became Don Draper and, as a result, he lost everything; his wife, his children and, you could even argue, his ad agency. After last answering “Who is Don Draper?” Don lost everything and had to rebuild again.

“Public Relations” begins as a distorted mirror of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” the premiere episode of the series, as we follow Don Draper around and see his world. The confident Lothario of that first episode though is gone. He’s not the darling of Sterling Cooper able to sell any ad campaign with a smile and a nod and he’s not the man who can get any woman just by smoldering at her, almost willing her into a bed. That man was in complete and total control of his world. The Don Draper of 1964, not so much.

Actually, no one is the same as they were in “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” Pete and Peggy are much more confident, less intimidated by Don’s childish outlashes at them. Burt Cooper, the gentle patriarch of Sterling Cooper, is more frazzled than we’ve seen him before; the pressures of starting over have worn on him. Betty Draper, the one time untouchable suburban housewife, is now a divorced woman, with all of the eyes of Henry Francis’s family all watching and judging her. Betty’s life is in as much turmoil as Don’s is; without his protection, Betty is being judged as both a wife and a mother, neither of which she is very good at. Maybe the only person who remains unchanged is good old Roger Sterling, who still says what he wants to who he wants.

So, who is Don Draper? That’s the question that Matt Weiner and his team of writers have simultaneously been trying to answer and avoid. To define Don Draper is to close him off. If Don Draper can answer the question who is he, he instantly becomes one of us, another man trying to get by. Weiner worked on The Sopranos and I think it’s easy to define who Tony Soprano was– suburban father and family man and also the leader of a mob. The conflict in The Sopranos was the struggle between Tony’s two well-defined lives. Don Draper doesn’t live in that kind of world. He gave up that world after the Korean War and his deliberate identity switch with a dead man. His life since then has been running way from the conventional things like family and identity. He’s found them but you get the feeling he’s stumbled into them.

Now, he’s stumbled into something new; the new ad agency Sterling Cooper Draper Price. His name is on the door. He’s marked something as his. That actually is a bit of definition and we start to see Don stumble a bit because of it. And maybe it’s not a stumble; maybe this Don Draper is a different man, a new man, than we’ve seen in the past 3 seasons. You can almost see the age and weariness on Jon Hamm’s face as he plays Draper. He doesn’t carry himself the same way anymore. Even at the end of the episode, when trying to control the damage he’s done, Don is asked the same question again, we see a slight bit of the old Don Draper but then… something changes again. He’s not the quiet man, who’s more confident to let his actions speak louder than his words, anymore. He’s changed and now he’s a bit more in control, trying to mold who he is, to redefine himself.

“Public Relations” is about rebuilding. Matt Weiner is rebuilding his show just as Don Draper is rebuilding his life. There are holdovers; Betty (creepily with Henry) still live in Don’s suburban house and sleep in his bed while Don has a small NYC apartment. The lavish and open office of Sterling Cooper is replaced by a small maze of offices for Sterling Cooper Draper Price. Both environments reflect how trapped Don’s life has become, how small and knotted. Try to get a feel for the layout of either place from this episode and you can’t. Don’s life has become smaller, more trapped. In the past, we’ve seen him run away in episodes like this. I wonder how long his life can hold together this season before he runs off again.

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July 26, 2010 0

reviews and quick thoughts on Blackest Night

By Scott Cederlund in comics
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For some reason, a bevy of Blackest Night books coming out made me read the three main ones and write about them at Popdose.

At almost every turn in Blackest Night, Johns basically tells us that we need to feel the importance of these things but never tells us why.  Or worse yet, he just assumes we know who everyone is and how they relate to one another.  Big forehead guy?  These things are important to Geoff Johns so, by his supreme will, they’re supposed to be important to us?  Johns spends so much time coming up with new and different ways to torture, maim and resurrect characters that he doesn’t have any time to make the reader care.  A bunch of dead villians rise.  Why?  A bunch of colorful Lantern warriors show us with Green Lantern.  Why?  The big bad is some dude named Nekron.  Why?  The friggin’ Anti-Monitor show us just because I think Ivan Reis likes drawing him.  There’s no purpose given to any of the actions in this book.

You can read the full review here.

A couple of more quick thoughts:

  • It's at least better than Siege, which I also read over the weekend.  Love them or hate them, I think Bendis and Johns are the two most fascinating mainstream superhero writers right now, the way they're regurgitating ideas from their own personal golden ages and filtering them into the Avengers and Green Lantern books.  I'm not saying it's good; just interesting.
  • Wanting a good book, I've been reading the Absolute Planetary volumes and found something I hadn't noticed before.  In that issue of Planetary showcasing how the 4 had killed analogs for Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, Ellis slips in a reference to Blackest Night in the GL oath I think.  I wonder if Ellis was pulling this from the Alan Moore story as well or is it just something in the zeitgeist that makes that a good term.
  • I only got into it a bit in the review but, man, was Blackest Night (at least these three volumes) a good artist showcase.  Reis, Mahnke and Gleason all did great work.  I was ready to completely ignore anything after Blackest Night but after rereading the series, I'm really wanting to pick up Brightest Day and Green Lantern just for the art.
  • Also not brought up in the review but I hate the covers to the Blackest Night and BN: Green Lantern collections, and the way they painted over the art.  I guess it unifies the look of the series but I'd rather see the original line art in those covers.

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July 23, 2010 0

@ Indie Pulp– Strange Science Fantasy #1

By Scott Cederlund in Review, comics

I don’t think I’ve posted a link to my review of Scott Morse’s Strange Science Fantasty #1 that’s up at Indie Pulp right now.

As you might expect, then, the world of the Gearheads has no rules and follows its own logic or anti-logic to such an extreme you might as well be experiencing a headtrip.  Their leader can literally have a headlamp for a head.  They create an army out of zoo animals and dub their weaponized gorilla V-Eighp.  They live in a world where all they want to do is race, not because it’ll make them famous or rich, but because they just want to go fast.  As Morse tells his story, he creates an almost epic science fiction poem about jalopies, cyborg animals and war.  It’s about the freedom, man.  It’s about keys and pink slips and how “The Man” just wants to control, commoditize and package them.

You can read the whole review here.

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July 23, 2010 0

Are you trying to seduce me, Ms. Pines? thoughts on Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour

By Scott Cederlund in Review, comics

Plastics.

A funny thought hit me at the end of Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour– is this comics’ version of Mike Nichols’ film The Graduate?  Can you draw a connection between Mrs. Robinson and Knives Chau?  Between a future in plastics and a future over the oven of a short order cook?  The final book in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series opens up with Scott, having lost his Ramona, lying in bed all day long, playing video games on a old handheld gaming system.  Now picture The Graduate’s Ben Braddock, lying on a lying on a floating chair in a pool, staring aimlessly up onto the sky, believing that Elaine Robinson won’t be his.  Of course, Ben never had to face seven evil ex’s or had a gay ex-roommate telling him that he had to sleep with someone like Scott does but both Ben and Scott face an uncertain future without the person that they think they love.

O’Malley’s big finale to his Scott Pilgrim saga (and that’s what it is at this point with 6 volumes) delights in showing us just how much has changed over the past year in the life of Scott Pilgrim.  Knives Chau, his high school aged ex girlfriend, was only a child of 17, infatuated with Scott in the first book.  Now, all of 18 years old, she’s gotten it together, ready to leave her obsession with Scott behind and get on with her life.  And a lot of her gro

wing up was during the last 4 months, during the time when Scott just laid on his couch playing Gameboy.  It seems like almost everyone grew up quite a bit since we last saw them; Kim Pines, Stephen Stills, Young Neil (now just “Neil,”) and Envy Adams are all just a bit older in this book.  Part of the beauty of Scott Pilgrim has been how O’Malley has created a complete cast around Scott and Ramona.  There are no stock characters here; they all have their own lives and grow up just as Scott does, except for his ex-roommate Wallace who I hope never grows up and never changes his catty ways.

The thrust of Scott Pilgrim’s life has been keeping it the same as it’s always been; the same roommate, the same friends and the same band.  Even as new elements like Knives and Ramona entered his life, he did everything he could to pull them into the life he already led.  His friends became their friends.  They got to know his past and his ex-girlfriends while he only got to know the surface levels of them, often preferring not to know Ramona’s past until one of the exes showed up.  Even then, he didn’t want to know about them and Ramona beyond what he needed to know to defeat the exes.

Ramona always was a dream for Scott, a breezy and mysterious girl who always seemed distracted in their relationship, looking over her shoulder to the past.  There was something back there in her past more than just the 7 exes.  As much as Scott didn’t want to know, there was stuff that Ramona didn’t want him to know.  This final book becomes both of their story as Scott and Ramona both have to try and fully commit  to each other.  And to do that, they have to face the ultimate of her exes, Gideon.

With each of the previous six exes, there have been great twists that O’Malley threw in to make them more than stock characters.  There’s been skate-boarding movie stars, rock stars who are now dating one of Scott’s exes, twins, a girl and even the first boyfriend Patel, who barely even qualifies because they only ever had one kiss and broke up after a week.  (Quick aside:  It’s great how Scott’s close circle of friends are relatively normal guys and girls while everything around them is all ninjas, robots and video-game reality.)  While there’s this great odd craziness to Ramona’s past, Gideon falls flat.  Here’s been the character we haven’t seen but who’s been pulling the exes strings since the first volume.  He sent them after Scott but when we finally see him, he’s this stock post-modern hip Snidely Whiplash character, with Ramona tied up metaphorically to the train tracks while he tests Scott’s ability to rescue her.  Other than a bit of weak mumbling when it’s all over, we never even get an idea of what Ramona or a girl like Envy Adams would see in let alone be interested in Gideon.  We’ve been getting this huge buildup to the ultimate ex-boyfriend and he ends up being the bad guy from so many teenage movies and stories.

Luckily, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour isn’t about Gideon.  In the end, Gideon and all of the exes are just plot devices.  They provide the fun and distractions while O’Malley tries to get to the heart of his story.  “Change is… it’s what we get,” Ramona tells Scott.  Gideon, and maybe this is why he doesn’t fit in the book that well, is about staying the same.  He’s trying to force Scott and Ramona to be the same people they always were; to be as flighty and irresponsible now as they were when the story began.  As the world around Scott and Ramona changes (Envy gets a solo career, Kim Pines moves home to find herself, Stephen Stills starts a new band, Knives leaves for school,) they’re the holdouts.  They don’t want to go back to the way things were but they don’t want things to change.

“Plastics,” The Graduate’s Ben Braddock is told to set him on the path of a sure-fire future.  “Go out and sleep with someone” is the advice that Scott gets.  Way different messages but the goal of both is surprisingly the same; to get Ben and Scott moving forward.  Maybe if you’re of a certain age, you can imagine Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” playing as Scott walks into Gideon’s new nightclub for the final showdown.  “Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes.”  (O.k.  maybe I’m just showing my own age with that idea.)  Ben and Scott are both two boys in love and waiting to grow up, waiting to be forced before taking control of their own lives.

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July 22, 2010 0

Vote for Star Wars: Forgotten Realm

By Scott Cederlund in movies

Star Wars: Forgotten Realm is a movie my cousin’s husband has been working on forever.  In fact, my cousin and her daughter are featured quite predominantly in this trailer that he’s put together.  (That cutie at the beginning is Victoria.)

This trailer has been entered in the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge.  If you get the chance to, go and vote for it.  The voting is open until August 2nd and I guess the winner will be announced at Star Wars Celebration next. month.

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July 22, 2010 0

Eisner dreaming on such a winter’s day

By Scott Cederlund in comics
SDCC begins today but it seems like Marvel and DC are already controlling their news cycles and have released most of their news in the past couple of weeks.  The biggest thing to look forward to are the Eisners I guess.  So here's how I handicap them this year.  My Eisner picks are in bold.

Best Short Story
  • "Because I Love You So Much," by Nikoline Werdelin, in From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the 3rd Millennium (Fantagraphics/Aben maler)
  • "Gentleman John," by Nathan Greno, in What Is Torch Tiger? (Torch Tiger)
  • "How and Why to Bale Hay," by Nick Bertozzi, in Syncopated (Villard)
  • "Hurricane," interpreted by Gradimir Smudja, in Bob Dylan Revisited (Norton)
  • "Urgent Request," by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, in The Eternal Smile (First Second)

I haven't read any of the short story nominees.  I have no idea where most of these stories even appeared.  I have to really work better at tracking down short stories next year.  Of course, I think I've said that every year so far.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)

  • Brave & the Bold #28: "Blackhawk and the Flash: Firing Line," by J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz (DC)
  • Captain America #601: "Red, White, and Blue-Blood," by Ed Brubaker and Gene Colan (Marvel)
  • Ganges #3, by Kevin Huizenga (Fantagraphics)
  • The Unwritten #5: "How the Whale Became," by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)
  • Usagi Yojimbo #123: "The Death of Lord Hikiji" by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)

I've only read two of these.  Usagi Yojimbo is a huge blind-spot in my comic reading library but Ganges #3 was a great book, following it's own internal logic.  Huizenga is an under-rated cartoonist I think who really experiments with his storytelling techiniques.

Was Jonah Hex #50 this year?  I'm surprised that didn't get a nomination.

Best Continuing Series

  • Fables, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy et al. (Vertigo/DC)
  • Irredeemable, by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (BOOM!)
  • Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)
  • The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)
  • The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman and Charles Adlard (Image)

Let's go with 20th Century Books in this category because it's the only book here that I really like, even though I recently discovered The Walking Dead and have been getting a kick out of it.  My pick would probably have been Jeff Smith's Rasl if it had been nominated.  I'd maybe even include Amazing Spider-Man in this category.

Best Limited Series or Story Arc

  • Blackest Night, by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Oclair Albert (DC)
  • Incognito, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel Icon)
  • Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ Media)
  • Wolverine #66-72 and Wolverine Giant-Size Special: "Old Man Logan," by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, and Dexter Vines (Marvel)
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young (Marvel)

3 out of the 5 nominees in this category could easily win.  I'll let you decide which two I could care less about.

Best New Series

  • Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (Image)
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, art by Tony Parker (BOOM!)
  • Ireedeemable, by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (BOOM!)
  • Sweet Tooth, by Jeff Lemire (Vertigo/DC)
  • The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)

I'm not a fan of either Chew or The Unwritten and neither Boom title has done anything for me.  That leaves Sweet Tooth as the default winner here. 

Best Publication for Kids

  • Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf)
  • The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, by Eleanor Davis (Bloomsbury)
  • Tiny Tyrant vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme (First Second)
  • The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly (Abrams ComicArts/Toon)
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz hc, by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and Skottie Young (Marvel)

I'm not a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz but I enjoyed Shanower and Young's adaptation. 

Best Publication for Teens

  • Angora Napkin, by Troy Little (IDW)
  • Beasts of Burden, by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
  • A Family Secret, by Eric Heuvel (Farrar Straus Giroux/Anne Frank House)
  • Far Arden, by Kevin Cannon (Top Shelf)
  • I Kill Giants tpb, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura (Image)

Far Arden was really good but I wonder how it qualifies as a "teen" book.  Dorkin and Thompson's Beasts of Burder was a gorgeous and wonderfully told series. 

Best Humor Publication

  • Drinky Crow's Maakies Treasury, by Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics)
  • Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me, And Other Astute Observations, by Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics)
  • Little Lulu, vols. 19-21, by John Stanley and Irving Tripp (Dark Horse Books)
  • The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet the Muppets, by Roger Langridge (BOOM Kids!)
  • Scott Pilgrim vol. 5: Scott Pilgrm vs. the Universe, by Brian Lee O'Malley (Oni)

Langridge has been my favorite cartoonist of the year.  His The Muppet Show books are great showcases in storytelling. 

Best Anthology

  • Abstract Comics, edited by Andrei Molotiu (Fantagraphics)
  • Bob Dylan Revisited, edited by Bob Weill (Norton)
  • Flight 6, edited by Kazu Kibuishi (Villard)
  • Popgun vol. 3, edited by Mark Andrew Smith, D. J. Kirkbride, and Joe Keatinge (Image)
  • Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays, edited by Brendan Burford (Villard)
  • What Is Torch Tiger? edited by Paul Briggs (Torch Tiger)

I haven't been much of an anthology guy the past couple of years.  There's too much noise in some of them.  Of these, Abstract Comics is still a book that I want to get sometime.

Best Digital Comic

I think this is actually one of the strongest categories this year.  The only series here I'm not familiar with is Power Out.  I have to go with The Guns of Shadow Valley here, a fantastic western. 

Best Reality-Based Work

  • A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Footnotes in Gaza, by Joe Sacco (Metropolitan/Holt)
  • The Impostor's Daughter, by Laurie Sandell (Little, Brown)
  • Monsters, by Ken Dahl (Secret Acres)
  • The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)
  • Stitches, by David Small (Norton)

And here's another strong category but Footnotes in Gaza was one of the best books of the last year.

Best Adaptation from Another Work

  • The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb (Norton)
  • Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation, adapted by Michael Keller and Nicolle Rager Fuller (Rodale)
  • Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, adapted by Tim Hamilton (Hill & Wang)
  • Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
  • West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques Tardi (Fantagraphics)

O.k.  Once we get away from the month-in/month-out comic categories, we get a number of strong ones.  This is almost a toss up between Parker and West Coast Blues.

Best Graphic Album-New

  • Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
  • A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
  • The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb (Norton)
  • My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and émile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
  • The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)
  • Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)

Going totally new, I think Asterois Polyp has to take this one.

Best Graphic Album-Reprint

  • Absolute Justice, by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithewaite (DC)
  • A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld (Pantheon)
  • Alec: The Years Have Pants, by Eddie Campbell (Top Shelf)
  • Essex County Collected, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
  • Map of My Heart: The Best of King-Cat Comics & Stories, 1996-2002, by John Porcellino (Drawn & Quarterly)

The Essex County Collected really recreated the experience of reading the Essex County books.  I like how there's some recontextualization going on as you get all three stories together to form one large story.

Best Archival Collection/Project-Strips

  • Bloom County: The Complete Library, vol. 1, by Berkeley Breathed, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
  • Bringing Up Father, vol. 1: From Sea to Shining Sea, by George McManus and Zeke Zekley, edited by Bruce Canwell (IDW)
  • The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940, edited by Trina Robbins (Fantagraphics)
  • Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, by Gahan Wilson, edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
  • Prince Valiant, vol. 1: 1937-1938, by Hal Foster, edited by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics)
  • Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, Walt McDougall, and W. W. Denslow, edited by Peter Maresca (Sunday Press)

I love the Bloom County book but Fantagraphics Prince Valiant V1 is a wonderful presentation of Hal Foster's work. 

Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Books

  • The Best of Simon & Kirby, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, edited by Steve Saffel (Titan Books)
  • Blazing Combat, by Archie Goodwin et al., edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
  • Humbug, by Harvey Kurtzman et al., edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
  • The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures deluxe edition, by Dave Stevens, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
  • The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly (Abrams ComicArts/Toon)

I'm always happy to find more Archie Goodwin comics.  And this has a nice pair of interviews with Jim Warren and Archie Goodwin.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

  • My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and Émile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
  • The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)
  • Tiny Tyrant vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme (First Second)
  • West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques Tardi (Fantagraphics)
  • Years of the Elephant, by Willy Linthout (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

Fantagraphics Tardi books have been a great discovery this year but I think I almost enjoy You Are There better than West Coast Blues.  Both are excellent.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia

  • The Color Trilogy, by Kim Dong Haw (First Second)
  • A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
  • A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Oishinbo a la Carte, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki (VIZ Media)
  • Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ Media)
  • Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)

This is another of those "any can win" categories.  Today I say go with A Drifting Life, even over Pluto or 20th Century Boys.  I'm kind of surprised not to see Go Go Monter here or any Takehiko Inoue books.

Best Writer

  • Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Daredevil, Marvels Project (Marvel) Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon)
  • Geoff Johns, Adventure Comics, Blackest Night, The Flash: Rebirth, Superman: Secret Origin (DC)
  • James Robinson, Justice League: Cry for Justice (DC)
  • Mark Waid, Irredeemable, The Incredibles (BOOM!)
  • Bill Willingham, Fables (Vertigo/DC)

I hate to say it but are these the best of the year?  Where's Jeff Parker or Rick Remender?  Where's Fraction or Morrison? 

Best Writer/Artist

  • Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (IDW)
  • R. Crumb, The Book of Genesis Illustrated (Norton)
  • David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)
  • Terry Moore, Echo (Abstract Books)
  • Naoki Urasawa, Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka (VIZ Media)

Now this is more like it, though I'd probably substitute Jeff Smith in for Terry Moore.  I think Mazzucchelli's really showed what a good writer/artist could do.

Best Writer/Artist-Nonfiction

  • Reinhard Kleist, Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness (Abrams ComicArts)
  • Willy Linthout, Years of the Elephant (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
  • Joe Sacco, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan/Holt)
  • David Small, Stitches (Norton)
  • Carol Tyler, You'll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

Sacco puts you where the action is.  That's what you want in this category I think.

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

  • Michael Kaluta, Madame Xanadu #11-15: "Exodus Noir" (Vertigo/DC)
  • Steve McNiven/Dexter Vines, Wolverine: Old Man Logan (Marvel)
  • Fiona Staples, North 40 (WildStorm)
  • J. H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC)
  • Danijel Zezelj, Luna Park (Vertigo/DC)

I'm not really feeling this category.  Williams III seems to be the runaway favorite but some names I'd throw out are Gabriel Ba (Umbrella Academy,) Guy Davis (BPRD,) Duncan Fegredo (Hellboy,) Doug Mahnke (Green Lantern) or even Olivier Copiel (Thor, Siege.) 

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

  • É Bravo, My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
  • Mauro Cascioli, Justice League: Cry for Justice (DC)
  • Nicolle Rager Fuller, Charles Darwin on the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation (Rodale Books)
  • Jill Thompson, Beasts of Burden (Dark Horse); Magic Trixie and the Dragon (HarperCollins Children's Books)
  • Carol Tyler, You'll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

I didn't read a lot of painted comics last year.  Painted or not, Beasts of Burden was one of the best looking books last yeasr.

Best Cover Artist

  • John Cassaday, Irredeemable (BOOM!); Lone Ranger (Dynamite)
  • Salvador Larocca, Invincible Iron Man (Marvel)
  • Sean Phillips, Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon); 28 Days Later (BOOM!)
  • Alex Ross, Astro City: The Dark Age (WildStorm/DC); Project Superpowers (Dynamite)
  • J. H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC)

Another J.H. Williams III landslide or will the cinematic covers of Sean Phillips sneak in for a win?

Best Coloring

  • Steve Hamaker, Bone: Crown of Thorns (Scholastic); Little Mouse Gets Ready (Toon)
  • Laura Martin, The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (IDW); Thor, The Stand: American Nightmares (Marvel)
  • David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)
  • Alex Sinclair, Blackest Night, Batman and Robin (DC)
  • Dave Stewart, Abe Sapien, BPRD, The Goon, Hellboy, Solomon Kane, Umbrella Academy, Zero Killer (Dark Horse); Detective ComicsLuna Park (Vertigo) (DC);

Dave McCaig on Mysterious the Unfathomable and Northlanders would be my vote.  Without him, I'd go with Steward as the shoe in.   

Best Lettering

  • Brian Fies, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? (Abrams ComicArts)
  • David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)
  • Tom Orzechowski, Savage Dragon (Image); X-Men Forever (Marvel)
  • Richard Sala, Cat Burglar Black (First Second); Delphine (Fantagraphics)
  • Adrian Tomine, A Drifting Life (Drawn & Quarterly)

It's not so much the letters but the way that Mazzucchelli uses the lettering and word balloons that make his work in this category stand out.

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

  • Alter Ego, edited by Roy Thomas (TwoMorrows)
  • ComicsAlliance, edited by Laura Hudson www.comicsalliance.com
  • Comics Comics, edited by Timothy Hodler and Dan Nadel
    (www.comicscomicsmag.com) (PictureBox)
  • The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
  • The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon
    (www.comicsreporter.com)

The Comics Reporter has to be the only site that I make sure is a daily read.

Best Comics-Related Book

  • Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel, by Annalisa Di Liddo (University Press of Mississippi)
  • The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics, by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle (Abrams ComicArts)
  • The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, by Helen McCarthy (Abrams ComicArts)
  • Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater, by Eric P. Nash (Abrams ComicArts)
  • Will Eisner and PS Magazine, by Paul E. Fitzgerald (Fitzworld.US)

Haven't read any of these.

Best Publication Design

  • Absolute Justice, designed by Curtis King and Josh Beatman (DC)
  • The Brinkley Girls, designed by Adam Grano (Fantagraphics)
  • Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, designed by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics)
  • Life and Times of Martha Washington, designed by David Nestelle (Dark Horse Books)
  • Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, designed by Philippe Ghielmetti (Sunday Press)
  • Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? designed by Neil Egan and Brian Fies (Abrams ComicArts)

Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow was a book I wanted to read after seeing the fantastic design of it. 

Posted via email from Wednesdays Haul’s posterous

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July 21, 2010 0

@ Popdose: The Man With the Getaway Face

By Scott Cederlund in comics
Outfit_previewcover.jpg

 

The great thing that Cooke really achieves with this story is the intensity and force of his main character.  You saw some of that in The Hunter but that longer story had its own ebb and flow.  This short story doesn’t have the time to ebb at all.  The momentum in The Man With The Getaway Face begins with the subtle action on the first page, a man getting his bandages taken off, and builds with each page up to the heist and Parker’s smoldering drive constantly driving the story forward.

You can read the full review at Popdose.

Posted via email from Wednesdays Haul’s posterous

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July 20, 2010 0

retro review: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness

By Scott Cederlund in Review, comics

Note:  This is my review of the third Scott Pilgrim book from 2006.  This one still remains my favorite Scott Pilgrim book.  It’s common of any series to say that you have to give it a couple of volumes to get into it and I think this volume is where Bryan Lee O’Malley really discovered the heart and soul of Scott Pilgrim.  This is the volume where I saw so much of my own past wrapped up in Scott, Ramona and Envy Adams, Scott’s high-school girlfriend who comes back into his life.

This is one of those reviews where I can remember writing it.  Back in 2006, my in-laws internet connection was still dial up so, on weekends when I would be up there, I’d disappear on Saturday mornings to go to Panera to write.  That Panera, not too far from where I went to college, seems as much a part of the Scott Pilgrim experience to me as any other place.

This review was originally written for Pop Syndicate but seems to be lost in their archives right now.

When The Infinite Sadness opens, Scott Pilgrim and ex-girlfriend Envy Adams are surrounded by people. The two have arranged a meeting for their bands to discuss Scott’s little local band, Sex Bob-omb, opening for Envy’s hugely popular band. Really, Scott just wants closure on their old relationship and Envy wants to see Scott squirm for a bit. You see, Scott has to fight his current girlfriend Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends, one of who just happens to be Envy’s bassist. Since this is the third Scott Pilgrim book, you may have an idea of the rest of the story by now. Scott and the bassist fight in a number of oddly kinetic and video-gamish battles until Scott finally wins. Scott and Ramona flirt endlessly while Ramona avoids telling much about her past. Other characters come in and go out of the story and the audience gets to laugh at the whole thing. Lots of laughs, some chuckles and we get to feel good. Everyone’s happy.

Following these type of events were fun in the first two volumes, helping to establish the logic and video game realism of Scott Pilgrim’s world. Those books established the rules for Scott’s world as well as the rules for the audience and what they needed to bring to the books. Now, with that out of the way, O’Malley is able to introduce a new element into the book; real emotion. After introductions and first impressions, O’Malley is able to give a more characters much deserved screen-time including Scott’s band-mate Kim, roommate Wallace and even Envy, who’s not quite as in control as she and everyone thinks she is. With this additional focus, the supporting characters become real characters and not simply props in Scott Pilgrim’s story.

Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite SadnessEnvy is the exact opposite of Scott and maybe that’s why they were together for a while. Scott live’s for the moment, accepting life as it goes along. Evil ex-boyfriends? No problem. Gay roommate and only one mattress? That’s cool. A girl using his head for a subspace shortcut on her delivery routes? Sounds good. Envy imposes her will on the reality around her. She plays games with people, casually tosses

off hurtful remarks to people she’s forgotten she actually knows yet remains blind to everything happening around her. She’s successful and Scott’s afraid to grow up a bit. People getting haircuts throw Scott’s life into a tizzy. Envy is the anti-Scott, devastating the last year and a half of his life after she broke up with him. While Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends remain caricatures and cartoons, O’Malley builds up an ultimately fragile character in Envy. The rock idol of millions, in the end, Scott’s the only one there to try and support her.

You can see her transformation physically throughout the book. In the opening, while she’s dressed the same as the others and fits in, she exudes a confidence and cockiness, belittling everyone at every chance she gets. As the book goes on, she begins to look more and more like a rock star to the point where we’re told her appearance cost $50 million. She’s not like everyone else. She’s “special.” And then her world crumbles around her. By the end, she’s wearing Scott’s old sweatshirt, standing out in the rain. For as famous as she’s become, she’s really not too different from Scott. She only has a better wardrobe.

Wallace, Scott’s gay roommate, is turning out to get the coolest character in this book. Someday, I’d love to see O’Malley doing a book just about Wallace. In the first two books, we thought that Scott was lynching off of his roommate. In their two room apartment (hey, the bathroom counts as a room, doesn’t it?) everything is Wallace’s; the mattress they share, the couch, the tv, the food. Everything. In The Infinite Sadness, O’Malley delves into their relationship a bit more, including how Wallace and Scott met. Their friendship may not be totally as one-way as we originally thought. Scott gets almost everything he needs; food and shelter. Wallace gets a friend. He wiggled his way into Scott’s life, showing up to play video games and for Pilgrim family dinners. Scott and Wallace’s friendship is real. They both have something to give to it and something to take from it.

Don’t worry. For as much character development that the Infinite Sadness contains, it also has all of the outrageous and fun action of the first two books. Before the book can become too serious with Scott’s love life or Envy’s backstabbing, O’Malley remembers that this is as much a humor book as anything else, including a magical purse that contains a giant hammer that makes Thor’s magical hammer seem like a small paperweight. The best odd idea included is the band, The Boys and Crash, who have practiced so hard and intensely that they no longer need instruments. “Hard work and willpower alone” are all that’s needed to make music. Brilliant.

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness Volume 3
Written and Drawn by: Bryan Lee O’Malley

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