Category: Reviews

Review: Out of Picture, Vol. 2

picture21-3506137Out of Picture, Vol. 2
no editor credited
Villard Books, June 2008, $tk

No one will admit to editing [[[Out of Picture 2]]], though they seem to be proud of it – buried deep on the copyright page is the “produced by” credit I’ve pulled out for the bibliographic information above, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those were the editors. Ah, well – someone was in charge of this book, even if we’re not sure who that was.

Out of Picture 2 is the second book from a group of animators and illustrators connected to Blue Sky Studios – the first Out of Picture was published by a French house, caused a stir at some conventions, and was reprinted by Villard in December. (And I reviewed it then.) Basically the same crew is back for this volume, though they don’t all work at Blue Sky anymore.

And I see, looking back at my review of Out of Picture 1, that it was a gorgeous book, but a bit lacking in the story department – somewhat obvious and clichéd. I’m sorry to say that Out of Picture 2 is the same kind of thing – amazing art, reproduced fantastically well on large pages of nice paper…but telling stories that aren’t all that special.

This time, we open with Jason Sadler’s wordless “[[[Sub Plotter]]],” a cute little story about the effects of sneezing on a gigantic war-map of an ocean. It seems to be set during WWII, and it’s quite visually inventive, using the space of the large pages very well and popping up with more insets than I would have thought possible. But the story told is a silly little vignette, and, even more so, it’s a vignette that would probably be better animated than in its current form.

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Review: ‘Starman Omnibus Vol. 1’ by James Robinson and Tony Harris

starman-8359527The true measure of James Robinson’s Starman is how, 14 years later, the series remains fresh and invigorating. The story of Jack Knight reluctantly taking his father’s mantle as Starman and protecting Opal City is endlessly inventive, an odd and challenging riff on the superhero.

Now is a perfect time to appreciate the series again, as DC is somewhat surprisingly collecting the entire [[[Starman]]] run into six omnibuses ($49.99 each). The first holds 17 issues, each filled with Robinson’s elaborately labyrinthine narration and plotting.

The first three issues are a perfect example of Robinson’s creative approach. In one night, Jack’s brother, who had assumed the Starman mantle, is killed amid a massive attack launched by an old Starman foe. While it’s a flurried and violent opening, Robinson stretches the story, mining each angle of the fight for richness.

Through that gradual unfolding of Jack taking up the cosmic rod, his character becomes immediately rich and deep. That, no doubt, helped the book to become such a lasting success.

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Review: ‘Drawing Words and Writing Pictures’ by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden

drawingwords420-1404654If you pay much attention to news about comic books, you know that the industry is seeing a boost in popularity that’s translated into comics becoming an accepted field of study at venerated institutions like Stanford and elsewhere.

As comics make the transition into classrooms it only makes sense that a formal textbook would soon follow. Fittingly enough, it’s a pair of comics creators and instructors — Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, who are also married — that created the first textbook, Drawing Words and Writing Pictures (First Second, $29.95).

The 280 pages of advice on creating your own comic is largely an introduction to comics newcomers, with explainers on basic concepts and terms. From there it progresses into fundamental skills, from page layouts to creating characters to creating finished quality art.

There’s a world of information the book never gets to, but then it’s essentially a course book for Comics 101. It does have tons of references to more advanced learning materials, though, which comes in handy.

While the book is designed to be used in the classroom, Abel and Madden have crafted it so that anyone getting into comics can gain a lot from it. Just on my own, I had a lot of fun going through their exercises and picked up more than a few new tricks. It’s also very well designed and exceptionally visual-friendly.

I wouldn’t call Drawing Words the Holy Grail of comics, but it’s an excellent place to start, a great primer on a terribly complex medium.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) gmail (dot) com.

Review: ‘The New York Four’ by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly

ny4-5124195[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a series of reviews of the five books coming out from DC’s Minx imprint this year. Previously, Van Jensen reviewed Rebecca Donner’s Burnout and Cecil Castellucci’s Janes in Love. -RM]

Brian Wood is a very good writer. Ryan Kelly is a very good artist.  That makes the failure of the duo’s new book from Minx, The New York Four ($9.99) all the more disappointing.

Wood, who has shown a masterful understanding of NYC in his series [[[DMZ]]], shifts his focus here to NYU and a quartet of freshmen, each with their quota of baggage. At the center is Riley, who had a sheltered childhood and finally experiences some freedom.

Not a bad premise, but Wood doesn’t really do much with it. The girls sort of bounce off each other in one low-key scene after another, and their problems are never substantial or interesting enough to invest in the plot.

The characters come alive (one triumph of the talented creators), but even they seem underwhelmed by the mundanity of their lives.

There’s also an air of forced hip-ness to the book, which tosses in little elements like character bio-boxes, New York factoids and half-baked Real World-style confessional moments. And the lesson, as always, is that you can’t fake the funk.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) gmail (dot) com.

Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #5 – The Poison Sky

The hit BBC series Doctor Who is now in its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel, and since we’re all big fans here at ComicMix, we’ve decided to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic.

Every week, we’ll have our best Who-philes go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out all of the continuity checks, names dropped and storyline hints we can find to keep in mind for future episodes. We’ll post our analysis each Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode once it airs each Friday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel before reading our review.

Missed a week? Check out our "Doctor Who in Review" archive or check out any of the past editions of this column via the links at the end of this article.

Keep in mind, we’re going to assume readers have already watched the episode when we put fingers to keyboard and come up with our roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Let’s begin now, shall we?

Season Four, Episode #5: "The Poison Sky" (more…)

Review: ‘Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps Omnibus’

omac-2752411In the four volumes of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World omnibuses DC recently released, there’s a not-so-coincidental trend of the introductions being more thought-provoking than the comics themselves.

During this latest run of Kirby nostalgia, most recently marked by this week’s release of his OMAC omnibus ($24.99), some of the smartest folks in comics have jumped at the chance to write at length about the King’s deep philosophical messages and revolutionary narrative approaches.

Thank God there’s none of that on hand in the OMAC collection (Mark Evanier’s introduction is more behind-the-scenes insight than anything). OMAC was a simple enough creation, a mutation of Kirby’s unrealized story of Captain America in the future.

Buddy Blank is an average Joe in The Future who has the fortune of being randomly picked by a super satellite to be zapped and turned into a heroic brute with a mohawk. Why the mohawk? We may never know.

OMAC never really trucks in the existentialism or social mirroring of Fourth World, which too often became jumbled and rambling when it strived for deep and contemplative. OMAC was, as Evanier writes, a creation born of the necessity of Kirby’s contract, which demanded a whopping 15 pages a week! (And you wondered why some of his stories feel rushed.)

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Review: Final Crisis #1, by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones

finalcrisis-1-7954193 Before we even get started here: SPOILER WARNING!

(So don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

DC’s tentpole summer event, Final Crisis, is finally here, and it couldn’t be more of an antithesis to Marvel’s Secret Invasion. While the latter has been a wall-to-wall action blowout, Final Crisis has kicked off with a rambling, contemplative first issue.

Of course, you know the score with Grant Morrison at the helm, and he’s predictably vague and cutesy. And the very first pages fit right into expectations, with a meeting between Anthro and Metron at the dawn of man that alludes to great depth, if not actually providing it.

From there, the book bounces maddeningly from spot to spot, never settling enough to develop a rhthym, or give a firm footing to readers.

There’s Turpin and the Question looking over Orion’s dead remains. There are the Green Lanterns talking in binary (“1011” signals a god’s death). There are heroes and villains fighting over Metron’s chair. There are the villains uniting for the umpteenth time. And…

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Review: ‘Batman Grendel’ by Matt Wagner

 batman-grendel-4721219Batman Grendel
By Matt Wagner
DC Comics/Dark Horse, February 2008, $19.95

[[[Batman Grendel]]] collects two short series – each one was just two 50-page issues long – originally titled [[[Batman/Grendel]]] and [[[Batman/Grendel II]]]. The slash has disappeared for the collected edition – perhaps because now the names of two male characters separated by a slash brings with it entirely different expectations?

(I’m reminded of Terry Pratchett’s never-quite-named character, from a tribe who are called after the first thing the mother sees after birth, who wished, desperately, that his name was Two Dogs Fighting.)

(And the very small “Vs.” on all of the online bookshots does not actually appear on the book itself, which is simply titled Batman Grendel, as if it were the product of some comic-book equivalent of a corporate merger.)

So what we have first is a 1993 story with Batman battling the original Grendel, Hunter Rose – who is in many ways something like an evil Batman, or a twisted mirror image. Rose is a self-made man, master of arcane fighting arts, and the scourge of the underworld in his hometown…although that’s because he took over in his town. Rose is incredibly violent in a very comic-booky way – he has the typical nonpowered superhero’s utter control of violence and movement, but uses it to slaughter at will.

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peanuts67-3642515

Review: The Complete Peanuts, 1967 to 1968 by Charles M. Shulz

peanuts67-3642515

The Complete Peanuts, 1967-1968
By Charles M. Schulz; foreword by John Waters
Fantagraphics, February 2008, $28.95

By 1967, [[[Peanuts]]] wasn’t just another comic strip in the local newspaper, it was a media phenomenon. The first TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, had won an Emmy amid universal acclaim two years earlier, and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown was about to open on Broadway. It was the epitome of mainstream entertainment – on May 24th, California Governor Ronald Reagan and the state legislature even proclaimed it “Charles Schulz Day.” The strip hadn’t quite hit its ‘70s mega-merchandising heyday, but it was getting there.

At the same time, not all that far from Schulz’s Santa Rosa home, Berkley was roiling with anti-war fervor and the Summer of Love had hit San Francisco. Peanuts had been seen as an edgy, almost countercultural strip in the early 1950s, but those days were long past, and Peanuts was the Establishment. In those days, you were with the pigs or with the longhairs, right? And where did Peanuts stand?

From the evidence here, Peanuts stood where it had always stood: on its own, only rarely commenting on specific issues of the day (such as the “bird-hippie” who would become Woodstock in another year or two), but talking around those issues in ways that most of America could laugh at… some more uncomfortably than others. Schulz was never one to declare himself on one side of an issue or the other; he’d just write and draw his cartoons, and let others make their interpretations.

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Review: ‘Burnout’ by Rebecca Donner

burnout-6585070[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of reviews of the five books coming out from DC’s Minx imprint this year.]

There is something almost daringly simplistic about Burnout ($9.99), as the central character Danni directly narrates her own story of teenage love and angst. No surprise, then, that fire is the central imagery to the book, unapologetic flames that do nothing but burn.

The first comics work of Rebecca Donner, who’s published work in nearly every other medium, Burnout finds Danni and her mom relocating to a remote locale, a forresting town. It’s quiet, aside from the drunken shouting of her mom’s new boyfriend.

The boyfriend’s son, Haskell, is the smoldering love interest, a young man angry at the world and especially at loggers, whom he attacks with near-thoughtless contempt. As Danni falls into a crush on Haskell she also falls into his world of ecoterrorism, and Donner turns the heat up even more.

A few times, the story becomes overly cute and childish, but by and large it is a stern book, as self-serious as the teenagers it describes. That’s not meant as criticism — Donner very effectively translates the caged sensation of youth, and the struggles (often misguided) to break free.

Minx books are at their best when they speak honestly with their intended audience of adolescent girls, and while the message of Burnout isn’t a happy-go-lucky one, it is honest. For that and much more, it’s a story that lingers in the mind, like the sharp pain of a burn.

[NOTE: I recently chatted with Donner about the book over at CBR.]

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) gmail (dot) com.

 

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