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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Reviews from the SPX Pile O'Plunder
Okay, so here are my trade paperback and graphic novel reviews from this year’s Small Press Expo. I’d like to thank everyone who I met and dealt with at the show; it’s always good to meet new faces and get reacquainted with old ones every year. The Wang: The Big One by Stan Yan Squid Works Comics, $9.95 The protagonist, a new college graduate, must now deal with a whole new set of pressures, including the stress of finding and keeping a job and dealing with his unfaithful girlfriend. What starts out as a simple goofball romp quickly turns into a surprisingly sharp and fascinating satire on both the corporate workforce mentality and those self-help encounter groups. In the face of so many pre-programmed drones, Eugene, the main character, finds it harder and harder to retain not only his individuality but his sanity, and it’s really funny to see (especially the scene in the self-help seminar). The art is decent and reminiscent of Jim Mahfood. However, I didn’t like the lettering. Even though it’s a font, the letters aren’t aligned evenly, and it’s annoying to look at initially. Still, this is very much worth getting for its engaging mix of smart and silly humor. B+ Between the Cracks: All Miracles Have a Price by Harris O’Malley Studio Underhill, $15.95 An anthology of sci-fi/supernatural stories all set in the same town. The special effects-type stuff is toned down in favor of characterization, which is a plus, although the dialogue tries too hard at times to be hip. The Paul Smith-like art is the big problem here: disproportionate in places, especially around the upper torso and shoulder area, too many empty backgrounds, shadows that do not follow the form at all, and figures that kinda look stiff. The first two stories are stronger than the next two (the fifth one is a coda to the second, so I include it with the former), but something about the writing didn’t completely click with me, didn’t make me fully believe in what I was reading, though you might feel differently. The typos towards the end didn’t help matters either. If you liked A. David Lewis’s Mortal Coils then you may wanna give this a look, though it’s not on that same level. B- Everyman: Be The People by The Brothers Goldman & Joe Bucco FWD Books, $6 An independent political movement, led by a socially-conscious novelist, a systems theorist and a presidential aide, launches an attack on the Bush-like president in an attempt to hold him accountable for a conspiracy to rig the upcoming election. If you read what Dan and Steven Goldman had to say in last week’s column, you know how much passion they and artist Joe Bucco have put into this project and it shows on every page. The book is sharply plotted, expertly drawn and full of three-dimensional characters, intelligently researched to mirror our world, and eerily plausible. Never has the need for a book like this been greater than right now. Easily the find of this year’s SPX, and one of the best books you’ll see this year. A Holliday: Cold Deck by Dave Samuelson & Jason Wright with Brad Samuelson Saddle Tramp Press, $10.95 A horror story set in the Wild West, in which the infamous dentist turned gunslinger Doc Holliday must pay an old debt claimed by his father and hunt down a murderer under the curse of a werewolf. Interesting approach to the Holliday legend, but the first half of the story gets hampered by too much narrative – in this case, in the form of letters between Holliday and his father. In addition, Dave Samuelson writes everyone in Southern/Old West slang, meaning “ah” for “I,” “ovah” for “over,” g’s dropped everywhere, etc., and it’s really too much. However, once you get past all that, it’s a mostly entertaining story. The art is excellent. Wonderful use of gray tones, in both ink washes and pencil shading. B Waterwise by Joel Orff Alternative, $14.95 A man and a woman, old friends from childhood, reunite on the shores of the lake they played in as kids to reassess their lives. Don’t expect heady romanticism in the vein of either Before Sunrise or Before Sunset – the leads here really are just friends – and that’s okay. There’s an old-fashioned comfort to their relationship, which is nice to see. Even though their lives have taken them different places, this bond remains firm and intact. My problem with this story was that we rarely get to see below the surface of this relationship. We get hints of their outside lives, but they’re unable to be entirely open about that, with both each other and the readers. This story is too insular; there’s no subtext to provide any kind of perspective to this relationship and after awhile it quickly becomes just talk. The art is at its best when depicting nighttime landscapes and cityscapes; objects seem to melt in and out of the shadows. I get the feeling there’s more to this story. It’s too bad we don’t get to see it. B- Baraka and Black Magic in Morocco by Rick Smith Alternative, $14.95 Another entry in the ever-growing travelogue graphic novel genre, this one covers the exploits of the author and his wife in Morocco, from the deserts to the markets to the beaches and more. This actually came out before Carnet de Voyage and A Few Perfect Hours so maybe it’s a bit unfair to compare this to those, but since I read those first, it’s gonna be inevitable. And the plain fact is that artistically, Rick Smith simply cannot hold a candle to either Craig Thompson or Josh Neufeld. However, that said, his pictures get the very basic point of the story across. His people are all very distinct, and he is able to depict cityscapes and animals like camels with a degree of recognizability. His storytelling approach is much more direct than Thompson’s or Neufeld’s; he’s more interested in relaying what happened and how, as opposed to what he and his wife may have felt in a given moment, and as a result there’s a greater degree of objectivity to the story. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t as drawn into it as I was with the other two books. Pick it up only if Moroccan culture really interests you. B- (On a related note, Smith’s new series, Temporary, with writer Damon Hurd, is definitely worth a look. I received the complete first issue after seeing a preview this summer at MOCCA and it’s way out of left field. Think Office Space meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.) * * * I grew up a Marvel Zombie. I bought just about everything and anything with the Marvel name on it, and more, I also bought into the whole Marvel versus DC rivalry, so I tended to turn my nose up at anything from the Distinguished Competition. Maybe that was why I never read any Superman comics… …even though I loved the movie with a passion. It was one of the first movies I recorded on our old Betamax VCR (wonder how much that would be worth now?). Every time ABC showed it, I’d huddle underneath the TV to watch it, often with snacks of various kinds. There were plenty of things I liked about it (not to mention the first sequel): John Williams’ score, the special effects (such as they were for that time), the action sequences…and of course, its leading man. It’s easy as a child to make such a heavy emotional investment in a film and to be completely immersed within the fantasy it creates, but even as an adult, that complete and utter suspension of cynicism remains intact every time I rewatch Superman, and that’s because of Christopher Reeve. And even today, it’s kind of a shame that Superman has to struggle for acceptance, because Reeve made Superman cool. It’s as simple as that. Readers from my prior column “Cheap Seats” will remember the story I did on Tellos artist and former high school classmate Thor Badendyck, who, after surviving a car accident that left him a quadriplegic, resumed his artistic career by drawing with his mouth. He received a phone call from Reeve when the latter learned about his condition, encouraging him ever forward. Thor was inspired by Reeve’s own rehabilitation from paralysis, as well as his crusade to further stem cell research, and like many, he believes it is only a matter of time before breakthroughs are made in the field that will benefit him and others like him. Reeve’s own never-ending battle has ended prematurely this week, but his example will not be forgotten. Wherever you are now, Chris – thank you for being an inspiration on and off the screen.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
