Comic World News | Pull List

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A Distant Soil, Elephantmen, and Rocket Girl

Scifi and superhero reviews

A Distant Soil #38 (Image)
Written and Illustrated by Colleen Doran

I�ve always wanted to try A Distant Soil. It�s sort of the Lord of the Rings of the comics world. Not in terms of story, but just in the way that it's been around forever and everyone�s heard of it and those who�ve read it say that it�s very good. It's a classic, in other words.

So, I�ve tried the latest issue, which probably isn�t the best way to go about it, but thanks to a handy �What Has Gone Before� page I don�t feel completely lost. The setting is superficially similar to Star Wars with its corrupt galactic government, rebel faction, and supernaturally powered heroes, but the tone completely separates A Distant Soil from any Lucasfilm comparisons. Even before Lucas tried to give a scientific explanation for the Force with the midichlorians, the Jedi never seemed as much like sorcerers as they did superheroes. Doran�s work, on the other hand, feels like magic.

With its beautiful, almost fairy-like characters, crystalline ships, tragic romances, and psionically-interconnected mystic beings, A Distant Soil is more like high fantasy set in outer space than it is true science fiction. And that�s just fine. I feel like I�ve only gotten a little taste of the overall story, but it was beautifully told taste.

Unfortunately, I have a limited tolerance for high fantasy. I prefer to see not only the beauty of a civilization, but the dirt and grime as well. And to be fair, maybe A Distant Soil includes some of that in previous issues. Next time I�m at the comic store, I think I�ll check out one of the collected editions and find out.

Elephantmen #3-7 (Image)
Written by Richard Starkings and Joe Kelly; Illustrated by Tom Scioli, Moritat, David Hine, and Chris Bachalo

I�ve been approaching Elephantmen entirely the wrong way. Because I�ve read comics for a long time, I�m used to their being paced in story arcs. The arcs can be densely packed and as short as single-issue stories, or they can be longer, �decompressed� pieces that spread out over several issues and read better when collected in a trade paperback. But Elephantmen is neither of those.

It�s immediately obvious that it�s not densely packed. There�s lots of room in an Elephantmen comic. And there needs to be because it�s such a damn gorgeous book. Moritat�s art is lavish and needs to be large to be fully appreciated. And the other artists who do back-up stories � guys like Tom Scioli, David Hine, and Chris Bachalo � are no less deserving of lots of room to show off. And Richard Starkings writes to that.

But simply calling Elephantmen �decompressed� is also doing it a disservice. �Luxurious� is a better word. Because seven issues into the series, I don�t get the feeling that we�re in the middle of an extended story arc about anthropomorphic animals trying to learn about a mysterious artifact. I get the feeling that this story arc is the series. Not that we�re on an epic journey with these characters, but that Starkings is just taking a leisurely approach to unfolding the story. Some issues are full of revelations about the plot, but others will retell the events of earlier issues from a slightly different point-of-view. Or they�ll depict a particularly brutal fight. Or explore a character you thought was secondary. And to someone used to getting on with the story and constantly looking forward to the next beat, it can be a frustrating adjustment to just relax and let the story reveal itself at its own pace.

But once you understand what Elephantmen is, reading it and soaking it in is a wonderful, extravagant experience. You don�t eat a gourmet chocolate mousse cake the same way you do a Hostess Ding Dong. You don�t read Elephantmen the same way you do a regular comic either.

Elephantmen is written by Richard Starkings, founder and president of Comicraft, who sponsors Comic World News.

Rocket Girl #2 (Pickle Press)
Written by Nik Havert; Illustrated by Jes�s Antonio Hern�ndez Rodriguez

This one is a couple of years old, but it�s one that I picked up at a convention or somewhere and I�ve been meaning to get to.

Rocket Girl is offensive on a couple of levels, but I should say up front that none of them are art problems. There are some cheesecake poses, but I don�t have a problem with that. Jes�s Antonio Hern�ndez Rodriguez is a good storyteller, has a great sense of anatomy and a pleasant style, and he can draw convincing backgrounds. He deserves a better story than this one.

The problem with the comic begins in its premise. Rocket Girl decides to become a superhero in order to gain the attention of another superhero named Fire Chief. Being completely helpless, she has another guy create a supersuit for her to tool around in and she becomes Rocket Girl. There�s some stuff about some supervillains that�s not so bad, but it all builds to a point where Rocket Girl has to face off with them and she ends up in trouble and wishing that Fire Chief would come and rescue her.

Maybe the point is that Rocket Girl is completely inept and helpless. Maybe that�s what�s supposed to make this series unique. Maybe she�s intended to grow as a character as the series progresses. But we�re given no clue that she has it in her to grow. She�s shallow and dumb and I really don�t want to spend any time with her on a journey of self-discovery and development. And that�s the best case scenario. Worst case is that this is just who she is and all that she�s intended to be.