Books of the Year! Death-Ray

 

Have you read Daniel Clowes Death-Ray (Jonathan Cape) yet? Are you considering it? Have you read it and loved it aware that there's so much going on under the surface?

Daniel Clowes work really does justify critical analysis and it always fares well.  Which is why I thoroughly recommend flicking here to TheComicsJournal for the Death-Ray Discussion forum as it kicks off with an excellent break-down of comments including the use of pink and yellow, the use of the unreliable narrator and how about this example below that he entitles The Great Easily-Overlooked Moment:

The story is full of them. One of my favorites is Clowes’s use of the “non-character reaction shot.” After Andy reveals his tragic family history, Louie has no response, failing to sympathize with Andy’s plight. (This failure condemns Louie, the story’s true villain—a sidekick motivated by jealousy of the hero’s power.) The media image—George Jetson’s pained face on the TV—provides the appropriate “reaction shot” to Andy’s revelation. Why is it that we let the media and cartoons do our feeling for us?

Even if you have no interest in Death-Ray - amongst the finest superhero books ever written in my opinion - it really is worth reading for a window into appreciating comics as an art form rather than just telling stories.

Simon Pegg's subliminal Death Ray promotion

Weekly Treats! The Adventures of Herge, Batman The Black Mirror

Graphic novel biographies work particularly well when the subject had a life filled with dramatic incident or at least fits within with a much wider picture.  Let the world of naked prose wrestle with all the introspection, books like Logicomix (about Bertrand Russell) and Hellraisers (concerning Oliver Reed et al) sing with vibrant events and A Drifting Life (Yoshihiro Tatsumi about his own life) delves through nothing less than the history of Manga via its subject. But as with the case of the Tatsumi biography, the story of Herge's life The Adventures of Herge (Drawn & Quarterly) simply feels appropriate in comics form.  Indeed to encourage this feeling the cover of the book, the title and some of the artistic "ticks" - a face here, a layout there - are reminiscent of the classic Tin-Tin style.  To whet your appetite, see here for Paul Gravett's essay on Herge.

 I'd say Bat-fans are spoilt for choice this Christmas.  What with Arkham City, Noel and now Batman: The Black Mirror (DC) which pairs fan-favourites Scott Snyder and Jock and re-prints Detective Comics back when the number was up in the three digits (ah the old days).  It's brutal and very well reviewed (and has a great cover actually).  'Nuff said.

And finally, Gears of War artist Liam Sharp has written and illustrated the stand-alone graphic novella Aliens: Fast Track To Hell (Dark Horse).  Just by adding the words Aliens to the title of any film or comic it officially becomes critic-proof but it certainly looks pretty.

Who'd have thought that Aquaman #3 would be a regular highlight for Weekly Treats? Well it blimmin'-well deserves it.  After taking all the jibes, Aquaman gets all "you shall not pass" as Geoff Johns reveals the secret of The Trench.  In Batman: The Dark Knight #3 a variation on the old toxin in the water story gets another airing but with added David Finch.  The solicitation for Flash #3 promises a great sequence with runaway cars, trains AND planes.  New and moody Supes looks for a link between the recent attacks on Metropolis in Superman #3 and in Justice League Dark #3 the team slowly, slowly comes together but we still don't know what for.  Fantastic Four #600 is Marvel's big release.  And I use the term big to encompass the size - a whopping 96 pages.  There's also the excellent Secret Avengers #19 - this time Michael Lark joins Warren Ellis - and Wolverine and the X-Men #2 following up the refreshingly entertaining (it had an unexpected comedic touch to it) first issue.  Finally Kick-Ass 2 #5, brilliantly subtitled Death by Cosplay - was that Mark Millar's pitch for the initial series?. 

 

There's lots more of course - check the Features tab if you don't believe me...

Swoon Now! Sand Castle

"None of us can leave..."

Brrr.  I've read Sand Castle (Self Made Hero) and this line gives me a chill.   It's a dark tale contrasted but the bright summer sun baring down on the clutch of characters who have found themselves together by chance on a tiny beach.  When a dead body is discovered floating in the water, followed by the realisation that everyone in the disparate group is aging very quickly we have a mystery wrapped in an enigma; so much so that it's now clear that we have strayed into the territory of science fiction.  It is the mystery of why (is this happening) and how (are they going to free themselves) that kept me feverishly turning the pages but as the uncomfortable nature of the ageing turns into an outright nightmare I found myself drawn in on a deeper level that hasn't actually left me yet.

 

The art by Blue Pills artist Frederik Peeters is excellent channelling a hint Will Eisner whilst expertly containing the potential for melodrama as the characters become hysterical.  For writer Pierre Oscar Levy it marks his debut graphic novel.

Weekly Treats! Fracture of the Universal Boy, Captain Swing & Who Is Jake Ellis?

Most closely associated with his work on The Sandman series which included the final story arc The Wake, Michael Zulli has spent the last ten years in something of a retreat away from deadlines, contracts and any sense of commercial sensibilities whilst he toiled on The Fracture of the Universal Boy (Eidolon Fine Arts).  The 200 page book even represents something of a self-publishing venture after an appeal went out for donors to help raise the $17,000 to see it published.  The target was reached almost twice over and at the back of book there is a list of all the patrons who contributed which should give you some idea about just how highly anticipated the project is.  So what was this book that Zulli felt so passionately about? 

 Told in a kind of symbolic dream logic I have tried to address the ideas and motivations behind the artistic life. What is the nature of belief? Love? The process of making art? At times it is pure unadulterated nightmare, brutal and almost blasphemous, and at other times sublime and even a bit silly, the book is a true labor of love...In effect it is my own personal monster, cobbled together from all the various bits of things that fascinate and appall me. It was deliberately made to provoke ideas, outrage, and catharsis, and the sense of peace one has after the inner storms pass, leaving one clear and washed clean.

                   Michale Zulli

For further, somewhat darker images and a review see here (you have to scroll down a bit to find it).

Getting a little tired of waiting for an issue (any issue) of Lady Mechanika?  Well you can get your Steampunk kicks with the almost-as-long-to-come-out series collection of Captain Swing and the Electric Pirates of Cindery Island (Avatar - due for a perky Christmas after Neonomicon and Chronicles of Wormwood).  Contary to writer Warren Ellis's claims that this is not a Steampunk title but "an Electrical Romance of a Pirate Utopia Thwarted", its got a similar design look about it although it's probably more authentic for being less contrived to cash in on the trend.  It also benefits from Ellis's more scientifically speculative mind - I'd suggest the finest around in this area of comics.  The illustrations are by Raulo Caceres.

 

 

The Crime section of the shop has received a steady input of quality stand-alone graphic novels over the year and on occasion there has been an element of high-concept about them.  This week we have Who Is Jake Ellis? (Image).  Jon Moore (Ellis and Moore - surely a nod to two favoured writers perhaps?) is a hugely successful spy due to the fact that he has a spectre watching over him that only he can see and hear.  Sound corny?  It could have been but it has the look and feel of the Human Target series from Vertigo.  By Nathan Edmondson and Tonci Zonjic.

 

There's also Scalped vol. 8: You Gotta Sin To Get Saved. You don't just get great titles by the way, it's a really good, tough series.  And Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin vol. 2: Batman v Robin makes it to paperback.  Art by Cameron Stewart and an uncomfortable Frank Quietly cover.

But don't forget the weeklies. Batman #3 has one of those solicitations that promises to change things forever, this REVELATION comes within the bat-family. In Justice League #3 the team is still forming and it ain't no team without Wonder Woman.  Speaking of which the excellent Wonder Woman #3 features another book with a character withholding a terrible SECRET.  The well-received Cap relaunch continues in Captain America #4 and be here for Incredible Hulk #2: Hulk vs Banner.  And finally Fear Itself #7.3 as Tony Stark squares up to Odin and what's this everybody: Tony's darkest SECRET is revealed to the World!

 

Full list of titles under the Features tab.

Swoon Now! Nelson

Remember the kids game where you'd sit with a group of people and when it was your turn you'd have to come up with a word that followed the one you'd just heard in order to build up a story?  It was stream of consciousness story-telling at its most rudimentary but it was always surprising and fun.  Nelson (Blank Slate) has grown out of the United Kingdom Comics Collective (UKCC) and puts this relay-race storytelling to a real test.  Over 250 pages, 54 comic creators each show a snippet in a year in the life of Nel, born in 1968 and taking us up to 2011 (I know that's only 43 years but there's a couple of overlaps). 

And as you can imagine, with 54 different creators that's quite a spread of styles.  From Jamie Smart's doughy cartoons, to Jon McNaught's quiet moment of introspection, Duncan Fegredo's more detailed sense of realism channelling the Twin Tower attack in 2002 and even a very brief appearance from Posey Simmonds. 

Of course any type of anthology has a built in flaw in that some styles are going to work for you better than others but this is better than a regular anthology because of the continuity in the story.  You're compelled to read each chapter and that means you're giving each artist your full attention rather than skipping a part you don't like the look of.  But of the course the fact that there are so many creators, I would think that it's impossible to not to be impressed by the breadth of styles on offer - really we could shelve this book in our How To Draw... reference section of the shop.  But we won't because at the end of the day it achieves its primary objective to tell a beautiful character study that, due to the many creative voices, remains fresh and surprising.  An admirable and veritable success.