Mark Chiarello, DC’s Art Editor Supreme, once again proves himself one of the driving visionaries in comics today. Following on the heels of his SOLO series (A critical, if not commercial success, that I hope DC tries again) he masterminds what I consider another DC homerun, WEDNESDAY COMICS (Dedicated to the great Archie Goodwin). WEDNESDAY COMICS is getting me to go to the comic shop every week to pick it up, and I didn’t do that for any other weekly book. Heck I don’t do that for monthly books. Just the format, and the fact that it’s a complete self-contained reading experience (no tie-ins etc) makes it for me an attractive read. So with the series half done, I thought now was a great time for an issue by issue overview: #1 WEDNESDAY COMICS 8 JUL 09- BATMAN is a solid choice to launch this collection of strips. Nice art, nice story, keeps you on tap for next issue. B. KAMANDI-A lot of praise has been heaped on Gibbon’s and Sook’s KAMANDI and rightly so. Completely captures the feel of classic Prince Valiant strips. And does a great job with the cliffhanger. B+. The SUPERMAN strip has beautiful art, but doesn’t feel as successful as the others in being compelling in one page. B-. DEADMAN- Nice art, layout, fun story, strong cliffhanger. Though, feels a little back-story heavy, B. GREEN LANTERN- Love the art, but feel the story doesn’t really make itself work in the one page format. B-/C+. METAMORPHO- Great art, Interesting story. B-/B. TEEN TITANS- Uggh. Neither the art nor the story particularly worked. Very off-putting every time I try and read it. D. STRANGE ADVENTURES- Pope’s STRANGE ADVENTURES gets a lot of praise, and while not my favorite of this issues’ strips, it’s a fun, relatively effective 1 pager. B/B+. Palmiotti and Conner’s SUPERGIRL is cute, and fun, kid friendly stip. B. METAL MEN- Dan Didio impressed me with this effective one pager, and the art by Jose Garcia-Lopez, and Kevin Nowlan (two of the greatest artists in the business) is stunning. Fantastic work by Didio to tell a compelling story in one page. A. WONDER WOMAN- It’s a beautiful strip and like Pope and Baker, Ben Caldwell is doing everything himself. So just for the body of work he’s producing on a weekly basis, he deserves praise. That said the story/structure is largely impenetrable and definitely off-putting. To take an oversized format and still make it squinting, eye strain material, is at the best a misstep and at the worst a crime. All in all, even less reader friendly than the TEEN TITANS’ piece. D-. SGT. ROCK- It’s hard to go wrong with the Kuberts, and this strip so far is no exception. Compelling. B/B+. FLASH/IRIS WEST- Just a lot of fun, and a throwback to the romance comics of yesteryear. And the art is beautiful. B+. DEMON & THE CAT – Great art, found the story not very intriguing or memorable. C+. HAWKMAN- They have Kyle Baker bringing up the rear but for my money that was a good thing because he ended strong. For me this was my favorite strip of this issue, hands down. Just fantastic art, story, and composition, with an effective cliffhanger. It had weight, and gravity to it, no pun intended. “And we Flap”. A+. #2 WEDNESDAY COMICS 15 JUL 09- BATMAN- Solid art. Though I’m not sold on the pacing of this yet. B-. KAMANDI- Wow. It’s just gorgeously drawn and composed. And effectively told. It is beautiful. B+/A-. SUPERMAN- Superman meets Batman. What’s not to love. While the characterizations seemed… off (“Super-Prozac” is that a comment that Batman would make?). Overall good. B. DEADMAN- Good strip. Nice art, relatively compelling. B. GREEN LANTERN- Improvement over last installment. Love the art, and ends on a good cliffhanger. B. METAMORPHO- Not much storywise here but I really enjoy how Allred plays with the page layout. And the kid commentary at the bottom is nifty. B-/B. TEEN TITANS- It’s better than last issue, though it still feels like they are not making use of the 1 page format. STRANGE ADVENTURES- I think here is where Paul Pope for me begins to earn his accolades. Fun art, fun story, effective use of the format. B+. SUPERGIRL- Not exactly my cup of tea. But great art, and kid friendly fun. B. METAL MEN- Loving this series. Didio and Garcia/Nowlan are knocking this out the park and perfectly using the format. Who would think a VP could actually be a great writer? Wow I’m impressed. A/A+. WONDER WOMAN- Still reader kryptonite. D-. SGT. ROCK- Good if taking its time about actually progressing the story. B-/B. FLASH/IRIS- is solidly fun and fantastic. B+. DEMON CAT- Uhhh— beautiful art, story is not doing anything for me. C-. HAWKMAN- Is still beautifully drawn, however reads perhaps a little awkwardly compared to that fantastic opening last week. B/B+. #3 WEDNESDAY COMICS 22 JUL 09- Batman-Nice art, story progressing. Just not terribly interesting so far. C/C+. KAMANDI- Continues to be one of the consistently best strips. B+/A-. Superman- Art beautiful, but starting to feel like it’s treading water. B-/C. Deadman- Nice page layout. Not particularly compelling. B. Green Lantern- Great art. Still trying to get a hang on the story. B. Metamorpho- I still appreciate Allred’s layout, though it’s getting a little repetitive. Same with Gaiman’s lack of actual story/story progression. It is starting to actually annoy me. C-. Teen Titans- Art is not my cup of tea, but the story seems like its starting to shape up. C. STRANGE ADVENTURES- I’m really enjoying this series. Paul Pope is consistently entertaining. B+/A-. Supergirl- More of the same. Fun but not my cup of tea. B. METAL MEN- Man!!! I keep having to sing the praise of these guys. Another brilliant mating of story and art and a cliffhanger! Wow! A/A+. Wonder Woman- Reader Kryptonite still. Sgt Rock- Okay, but still waiting for the story to progress itself. C+. Flash/Iris- Continues to be a joy. B+. Demon and Cat- Wonderful art, not sure what to make of the story. C+. HAWKMAN- Well, that was an unexpected twist. Art is still good, and intriguing story, though I do miss the clean, grittiness of the opening. B. #4 WEDNESDAY COMICS 29 JUL 09- BATMAN- If you’ve seen the Big Sleep, and the thick verbal foreplay Bogie and Bacall do over a meal, you’ll appreciate what Azzarello and Risso are doing here. First one I really loved of their installment. The best Batman I’ve read in a bit, and it had no Batman in it. Excellent. A+. KAMANDI- Wow! Kamandi also ups there game with their best installment yet. Fantastic. A+. Superman- Beautiful art, but Arcudi seems to be pacing his story for the book, rather than the page. B-/B. DEADMAN- Picking up the slack from Superman manages to turn out their best installment to date. Fun. B/B+. GREEN LANTERN- I’m finally getting into this series and its right stuff feel. B+. METAMORPHO- Finally Neil Gaiman has decided to start actually writing a story and I’m intrigued. B/B+. Teen Titans- I don’t know what it is about the number #4 but even the Titans turned in a compelling installment this time. B. STRANGE ADVENTURES- Paul Pope continues to rock. A/A+. SUPERGIRL- What the heck. Even this one was great! Made me laugh! B+. METAL MEN- Brilliance. Pure Brilliance. A+. Wonder Woman— nope Sgt. Rock- Still feels like it’s treading water. C. Flash/Iris- Is still very good, but perhaps a bit confusing. B. Demon and Cat- Uhhh— beautiful art. Story is a nope. HAWKMAN- Wow. I thought this was fantastic. From the invasion to the JLA to the last line. B+/A-. #5 WEDNESDAY COMICS 5 AUG 09- Batman- Azzarello and Risso are hitting their stride. B/B+. KAMANDI- Kamandi rocks! A. Superman- Nice retelling of an oft told origin. B. DEADMAN- Wow! Pretty intense. B+. GREEN LANTERN- It’s rockingly good now. B+. Metamorpho- not a fan of what Gaiman is doing here. C-/D. Teen Titans- A little heavy-handed been there done that. But at least it’s solid storytelling now. C. Strange Adventures- A nice lull. But still fun. B. Supergirl- Fun. B. METAL MEN- Beautiful art. Solid fun. B+. Wonder Woman- unreadable Sgt Rock- Good art, but it’s like Andy Kubert has no idea how to advance the plot. FLASH IRIS- Good stuff. B+. Demon Cat- Great art, a boring story. C-/D. HAWKMAN- Here’s the best compliment I can give this HawkMan serial… I want to own every single page! Baker is amazing, particularly when you consider outside of Ben Caldwell he’s the only one doing the entire strip by himself (Paul Pope does everything except colors). But where Caldwell’s strip is not reader friendly, Baker’s has weekly been one of the serials I look forward to and enjoy the most. B+. #6 WEDNESDAY COMICS 12 AUG 09- BATMAN- Some beautiful visual storytelling. B+. KAMANDI- Beautiful as always. Fun/ great. B+. Superman- Beautiful art. Not enough there to say anything about the story. C+. Deadman- Intriguing. B/B+. Green Lantern- I’m on board. Fun stuff. B/B+. Metamorpho- uhhh— Gaiman’s work leans heavily toward filler/treading water. C-/D. Teen Titans- I’m enjoying the story now. Intriguing. B. STRANGE ADVENTURES- Lives up to its title. Pope consistently weaving an engaging and brilliant narrative. A-. SUPERGIRL- Okay since issue #4 this has been consistently really fun! And this issue continues the streak. B+. METAL MEN- I continue to toss accolades at this strip, but that’s because week in and week out it continues to earn them. Here the METAL MEN take on the mastermind of the bank robbery they’ve been foiling the past 5 weeks, only to realize that bank robbers are the least of their problems. B+/A-. Wonder Woman- unreadable Sgt Rock- Well story is finally moving. C. FLASH/GRODD- I was getting confused, timetravel does this to me, but I read all six issues back to back again, and confusion is cleared up. Remarkably inventive and fun. Wacky stuff and fun Grodd strip this time. B+. The Demon and the Cat- I hate a non-rhyming Demon. D. HAWKMAN- I’m really loving the heck out of Hawkman. After a couple odd steps, it’s feeling back on solid ground. And I’m loving Bakers art. B+.

This is some random images of items currently on my overloaded radar. Either films I’ve watched, or books I’ve read, or music listened to: I’ve just finished the first 2 books in the 3 book series that is JUSTICE. You can find expanded details about what I thought of it by checking out my 100 GREATEST GRAPHIC NOVELS posting, over in the menu to your right. But in brief, I thought it was a very effective collaboration. Particularly the melding of Doug Braithwaite’s inventive layouts with Alex Ross’ sublime paints, creates a final product to be lauded. The dialog, by frequent Ross collaborator Jim Kruegar, particularly at the start of the 2nd volume, doesn’t always ring true, seems at times forced and stilted. But these moments are brief, overall the story is everything it sets out to be, an engaging, if darker version of the Saturday Superhero cartoons that Alex Ross grew up on. All twelve issues deserve to be collected in the publisher’s over-sized Absolute format. **** While on the comics topic. There is really very little out there that interests me. Two of the best, most interesting comics in a long time GUTSVILLE and FELL look like they are on permanent hiatus. Simon Spurrier is paying the bills over at Marvel Comics, doing Ghost Rider or something. What a waste. I guess it comes back to that Kirkman Brouhaha, of guys spending their careers maintaining the old order, rather than creating the new. Similarly SPECIAL FORCES and ZEROKILLER are to be delayed. So with the best comics on hiatus, what does that leave? Well I’ve been looking around and seriously… not a whole hell of a lot. First and foremost I’m not paying $4 or $3.99 as they like to call it, for a comic book. Hell most people are on the fence, and rightfully so about paying $3 for a comic. So at the $4 price point, it makes more sense to say f**k new comics; and just read back issues. You can pick back issues up for as low as 25cents (there’s enough old comics, that if you tried you couldn’t get through a tenth of em in your lifetime, so who needs new), or do more cost effective collected editions such as offered through Manga, or Trade Paper Backs, or Original Graphic Novels… all available easily through your local bookstore. Warren Ellis had, and has, the right idea with FELL, a $1.99 book that is 2nd to nothing on the stands. But it does suffer from catch22-I-tis…. not enough people are buying it for Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith to do it regularly, but if they don’t do it regularly the people who are interested in it can’t buy it (and may stop looking for it), and it can’t build momentum and an audience. See? Catch 22. With the big two generally releasing diabetes inducing soap opera fare (SECRET this, FINAL that, who gives a good damn) an irony becomes clear. As shown by cinema receipts the mainstream is open to adopt comics, but the comics market has a/ very little of any quality for them to adopt and b/ no mainstream distribution in place. It is an idiotic oversight. At every theater that sold Batman tickets there should have been comic book spinner racks, loaded with comics, strategically placed not too far from the popcorn. .They could have moved millions of comics, as opposed to being happy to break 30,000 issues. I keep hearing how shrewd Marvel Comics is, but like Microsoft they are only shrewd in fleecing their customer base. Like Microsoft, Marvel would rather burn money in safeguarding what is broken rather than actually giving their customers something that works. Microsoft once upon a time made an operating system for customers to use. Can you imagine that? It was a bold operating system, nowadays Microsoft makes products with an eye to their limitations, with an eye to what you can not do with it. Those are two very, very, different mentalities and it shows in the quality of the product. One is an adventurous, explorational spirit which put Microsoft on the top, the other is a scared, protectionist, antagonist mindset that threatens to drag them to the bottom. Marvel Comics has that same mindset. They are protecting the old, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but they are doing it at the expense of the new. And that is a bad thing. It is, therefore, an age ripe to topple old men and old doddering companies. It is an age for the new. New items such as RETURN OF THE SUPER PIMPS! This series published by DIAL C FOR COMICS, is closing in on issue #6 and is the kind of book that is the victim of a poor distribution market. Meaning it should be selling millions, and would be great to sell to kids, but the distribution model is aimed at whispering to the choir rather than shouting to the crowd. Which is a shame because it is a great comic… and I recommend it. It is that rarest of things in a very cookie cutter market… it’s fun, it’s original, and it’s not Eurocentric. All things I consider very welcome, and very refreshing, and very needed. So bother your retailer for issues and if he can’t help you do a search, find the website of the company and order books direct from them. And just tell them HEROIC TIMES sent you. Okay enough of that rant. . ********* What do the above have in common? They are all films by director Atom Egoyan. The first film I saw by him was the brilliant and devastating THE SWEET HEREAFTER. There aren’t many movies I rate as an A. THE SWEET HEREAFTER just may be an A+. I’ve been going through the rest of Egoyan’s work, and it appears so far that THE SWEET HEREAFTER is clearly his best film. That said his other films have much to recommend them. I’ll do a full breakdown, similar to my earlier overviews of Directors Jess Franco and Tsui Hark (you can find those also in the column to your right); so check back often.

Moving on to other books

Oh, what a frigging week.

Working… who invented that.

Hey guys the “Good Guys” post, a followup to my last rant, is still under construction… should have it in a couple installments.

But for now just some brief, non-ranty goodness:

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First, much hate to COMIC BOOK SAVANT, for recommending much great stuff that I’m going to hunt up. Among the titles he put on my radar is:

John Ostrander’s STAR WARS LEGACY — and I’m not a star wars fans, but James of CBS raved about it, plus Ostrander is a good writer

COMIC BOOK SAVANT recommended DYNAMO 5, as a great read and he was right. So going to trust his recommendation on STAR WARS LEGACY.

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… Looking to complete my FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS Collection, as well as my EC ARCHIVES collection. And Harris publications will be releasing (Finally) CREEPY and ERRIE collections (downside being the price is outrageous!). Also Bernie Wrightson’ s FRANKENSTEIN is FINALLY being re-released!!! Woah!

For those of you who don’t know… The original Wrightson FRANKENSTEIN printing goes for a couple hundred when you can find it. So a new printing (due this summer, I believe) is definitely going to be on my buy list.

Wrightson’s MARY SHELLY’S FRANKENSTEIN is one of the greatest artists of the medium, at the height of his abilities, helping to transcend the medium.

Pick it up.

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Also much love to RETURN OF THE SUPER PIMPS. If you are not picking up this book, you really should be. It’s everything I look for in a comic: fun, endearing, positive, engaging. It’s about 70s type heroes with a SHAFT and SUPERFLY vibe, who come out of retirement to deal with a modern age of drive-bys and drugs and crime.

I’ve tried the first two issues and loved them, it’s the kind of book that you would want on the new stand, so inner city kids, and all kids, could find it and pick it up. It’s the kind of book that if there were still newstand distribution… it would be selling 100,000 copies easily.

And it’s not just a kids’ book, take it from a thirty something, it appeals to all ages. A solid B+ ! Strongly Recommended!

I think the writer Richard Hamilton is doing good work, crafting positive characters of color (and better yet a team where all the characters are of color, rather than the standard of the all White team, or White team with one token Black character), something unfortunately you see too little of. So now we just have to get the books into the hands of readers of all colors.

I really believe in this book, to see why… check the following link:

www.dialcforcomics.com

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Also some quick reviews:

SCALPED TPB- Covers the first five issues of the series, and is by Jason Aaron of THE OTHER SIDE fame. I loved Aaron’s THE OTHER SIDE, a solid B+. And I heard much praise for this new series by him, but I have to say the first trade… didn’t love it. It was okay, good…. but never went much beyond that. Not really that interested in the story up to this point. Much like DMZ, I found the read… underwhelming. And I still hate the Vertigo paper stock. The art just looks muddy and soaked up in their cheap paper. C.

SAVAGE TALES #5- From DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT is an anthology series sporting a simply gorgeous Arthur Suydam cover. I love wrap-around comics, have ever since Bill Sienkiewicz’s phenomenal wraparound cover on MOON KNIGHT #18 from the first FANTASTIC 1980 series, with him and the amazing Doug Moench.

However a cover is not enough for me to try a book, the preview blurb is… and it mentioned Don Lomax of VIETNAM JOURNAL fame, would do the writing on one of the stories. And that spurred me to give SAVAGE TALES #5 a try.

Verdict?

The interior art was simply atrocious. Very reminiscent of very bad 90s style art, And the stories were just wooden and uninteresting. Best thing about this book, only good thing really, was the cover… however I don’t buy a comic for the cover.

Grade: D-.

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And brief aside… Doug Moench, early 80s… best frigging writer in comics. People completely forget him, when talking about the comics renaissance, or the sophistication of comics.

People tend to think ONLY Alan Moore, and Frank Miller, when discussing creators who helped the medium grow up, and be seen as valid entertainment for adults. But there’s a definite progression, you don’t go from Stan Lee to Alan Moore. There’s a generational progression From Stan Lee in the 60s who created the Marvel blueprint, which was really the first line that really appealed to college kids… and hence the first step as comics as more than just kids stuff… to Roy Thomas who followed and maintained and expanded that blueprint in the 70s.

And primarily Roy Thomas did this by bringing aboard new hungry, amazing writers, from Steve Englehart (the flagship writer of the early 70s, who everyone else took their que from, his work on CAPTAIN AMERICA and AVENGERS being defining work) and Steve Gerber and Gerry Conway (the Pitch Hitter of comics, he came in when other people dropped the ball, and always did a brilliant job), to David Kraft, Keith Giffen, Jim Shooter and Chris Claremont(the flagship writer of the late 70s, early 80s).

So the late 70s, early 80s Chris Claremont was clearly THE writer of the age, making the larger than life grand superhero comics far more emotionally involving, and arguably the first superhero series to appeal to female readers. But Doug Moench, at the same time, relatively unheralded… was making involving, gritty comics, that didn’t involve people who could shoot bolts out of their eyes or read minds. His were espionage tinged tales, MASTER OF KUNG FU, MOON KNIGHT, SIX FROM SIRIUS, and some of his BATMAN work, (the stand-alone issues drawn by Pat Broderick— are frigging phenomenal!) that defined what was best in comics. And his work and Denny O’Neils and Don Lomax and Doug Murphy and Marv Wolfman’s and JM DeMatteis and Larry Hama and Steven Grant and Jim Owsley/Christopher Priest and Peter David work in the early 80s is another growth spurt in terms of quality and sophistication, that sets the stage for the writers of the mid and late 80s. The Frank Millers, and the Alan Moores and the Grant Morrisons. Who, after a slight stagnant period, then led into the Warren Ellises and Brian Bendises and David Macks and Alex Rosses (Ross is far more than an artist, is coplotter and creator on everything he’s done).

And these creators in turn lead into the Christos Gages and Brian K Vaughans and Johnathan Hickmans and Joss Whedons.

So when you say great or significant creators, just be aware of the chain of creators that came before, tilling the soil, without whom you don’t get a WATCHMEN or RONIN or DARK KNIGHT or PUNISHER. So the next time you’re at a con, don’t just search out the hot writer of the moment, but search out some of the creators that influenced him.

Here Endeth the Lesson.

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