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Automatic Kafka #8This comic continues to astound me. Not only is the artwork great, but it's a good, tough read. It takes time, effort and patience to THINK your way through an issue (in fact, EVERY issue), but the combination of deep plot and such non-conventional comic book art ("comic book" is almost an insult to use when describing the work of Ashley Wood) makes AK-8 a great read.This issue focuses on three stories: the goodbye letter from an arch enemy of the protagonist robot character Automatic Kafka to the robot himself; the continuation of the gas masked, leather-clad porn-star super hero who I THINK is called American Dream, but I'm not sure; and a touching conversation between Kafka and the former leader of his super group the $tranger$... |
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Washouts #1It's great for me to find that there actually ARE good comic book creators locally in the New England area, especially when it's something fun & cool to look at like Washouts by Michael Cohen. To REALLY simplify the concept, Washouts is the story of 5 space-faring/working women. I read the first story in this issue, which deals with 2 of the Washouts trying to escape from their enemy Sally Stargate and accidentally crashing their ship on a sacred temple on this alien meteoroid. Then more mishaps occur when the rest of the team comes to help them and more things go wrong. It's a cool story, done at a relaxed pace, and reminds me a bit of Love & Rockets. It's all in black & white and I guess I could be kinda critical in saying that the women's heads are a tad out of proportion with their bodies (in that their heads seem too big), but maybe that's just Cohen's style. Aside from that one nitpicky comment, I think the book is great and I think there's MUCH potential for developing these characters into even more stories... (Michael Cohen, 472 Main Street, Marlborough, NH 03455. E-mail and website)(DC) |
    This is another great Ash Wood project called POPBOT which is available through IDW Publishing |
Automatic Kafka #1This is one of those comics that maybe I shouldn't even attempt to try to explain, but it falls into a new trend in comics where the art is way beyond that of conventional comics. Yes, Bill Sienkiewicz did it with Stray Toasters as did a handful of other comic book artists in terms of using painting and abstraction and extremely LOUD imagery. Ashley Wood is one of my new favorites because his art is psychologically loud and compelling and violent and yet conveying of alot of emotion... Yeah, it may sound like I'm just heaping on praise for a difficult to follow, strangely illustrated comic book, but it's great to see more and more examples of comic books trying to break free of the traditional type of art & storytelling. |
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Gutsman #3Gutsman is a comic I picked up while dropping off new issues of Action Geek at Comicopia in Boston. At first glance it looks like an old EC style comic, but when you open it up and realize (probably based on the name "Gutsman") that this comic is a tad weird... No dialogue, all pictures. The main characters seem to be Gutsman himself, Tigra (a woman who he's involved in a realtionship with and who wears a Cheetah/Tiger type outfit) and a comic book artist. I'm not sure if Gutsman actually fights crime of any sort, but there's all kinds of fun to be had seeing him and the others involved in seemingly pointless silent stories. There's even a section where you see Gutsman in all kinds of weird "guises" ranging from Dracula to Donald Duck to Star Trek's Spock, etc. |
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Angry Youth Comix #3Ain't it great to be angry sometimes? And when you get really angry, really certainly did the trick for yours truly. I'd seen creator Johnny Ryan's work before in a comic called Low Jinx and thought it was pretty nasty, but this issue is more focused and even has a nostalgic cover that looks like an old Harvey Comics cover. With characters like Loady McGee and Sinus O'Gynus, things can only spiral downward in the politically correct world, but in terms od loud'n'obnoxious, it's all aces, baby. The first story involves Loady getting kicked out of his Mom's house because she & her new beau are pretty damned sick of him, and somewhere toward the end of the story, Loady is tarred, hanged and humiliated way beyond belief, but y'know... he pretty much deserves it. The rest is right on par with the Loady story, but my favorite is the Deaf Chef who REALLY screws up orders because he can't hear well at all... There's even a lovely Masters of the Universe parody... (Published by Fantagraphics)(DC) |
 
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Dan & Larry in
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Creature CommandosThe Creature Commandos seems to be one of this years' forgotten / overlooked comics. Maybe it's because it doesn't play well with others or maybe just because it CHOOSES not to play with others at all, meaning that there's no real tie-in with the rest of the DC Comics universe. That can be a GOOD thing, though. Who needs all the multi-title cross-over soap opera nonsense? Not me, hoo wee. Creature Commandos introduces us to some sort of rag-tag mutant / monster / alien (and some human) group of characters headed up by a (mad?) scientist who brought them back to life (or back from whatever hell they were in). There's also some sort of inter-dimensional doorway / window thing. Then there's the new guy, a soldier from WW2 who now has all kinds of mhardware / metal attached to him making him some kind of supersoldier. There's a conflict to contend with as well, but don't stress about the plot here, it's all action, baby. Fight scene, battles, death, gore and pretty good artwork to gaze upon. (DC) |
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FaithTed McKeever takes on all kinds of big issues of concern to him. Sometimes, though, some of these big, loft, far-reaching epic tales take more than a stretch of the imagination to comprehend. I understand this much about "Faith", that McKeever's characters exist somewhere between Heaven and Hell in a world / land / town called Murr. They aren't alive, but they aren't dead. And for some reason, Heaven's run out of room and now they want Murr and they'll kill to get it...even though killing the not quite dead/alive may or may not be killing... It can be a little confusing... But what I like about McKeever is that he DOES take on premises that no one else does. After seeing many of his oddball concoctions, I'd love to see what he'd do with more conventional superhero characters. But for now, "Faith" is a five-issue work that I shall have to pour over and study, not only for it's richly unique story, but because McKeever's artwork is amazingly different, too! (Vertigo) |
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Red WolfMarvel Comics is kinda on a nostalgia kick / western revival or sorts. Consider, for example, their new series called "Blaze of Glory" which re-unites alot of the old cowboy western characters they introduced in the 60's, and 70's like Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, Ghost Rider, Red Wolf, Caleb Hammer, etc. Marvel has also put out a reprint of older cowboy stories called "Gunslingers". Being a fan of all things way before my time, I decided to go back and check out the original comics from which these two comics were drawn from... In a 25¢ box at That's Entertainment, I found three back issues of Red Wolf, Masked Avenger of the Western Plains. Issue #5 shows Fast John Silver brandishing 6-guns, towering over the supposedly slain Red Wolf. This comic came out in 1972 and, for the most part, Marvel's westerns were great reading, so long as you weren't expecting super heroes or anything all that far from your typical western kinda story. Red Wolf, unfortunartely, was somehow brought into the present by issue #9 and the artwork had gone right down the proverbial crapper. "Blaze of Glory" has incredible artwork on the cover and on the inside, but somehow feels forced and rushed, but in not having a whole lotta choices for western style comics these days, it's better than nothing. www.marvel.com |
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Top TenCan you say "Best Comic Book of 1999"? I'm sure you can. Imagine a world FULL of superpowered people, robots, monsters, aliens, and everything inbetween. This is the world of Top Ten and the title comes from the name of one of the police precincts in the city of Neoplolis. The officers of Top Ten all have amazing powers and personalities. For once, we have ourselves here a comic with depth, substance, realism despite all the unbelievable, improbable elements. I describe this comic as the Hill Street Blues of comics. There are several storylines going on at once, different cases, different situations... All the characters have regular names and super names that seem to be easily interchangeable. For instance.... There's Officer Robyn Slinger aka Toy Box who's father gave her a box full of odd toys that she uses to fight crime as a cop. There's Seargent Caesar who is a dog in a robot chasis / exoskeleton that he walks around in, and, um, he talks too. There are MANY MANY characters... This is one of the very few comics that I eagerly wait for... You MUST check this comic out... www.wildstorm.com |
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Hellboy Junior 1 & 2Hellboy Junior is a silly take-off / parody of Dark Horse Comics character Hellboy, which I've read nothing about before... BUT, with art from Bill Wray (of Ren & Stimpy fame and even from Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola, it's funny as all get out... There are devilish stories revolving around Hellboy, but then there are some equally evil pieces about characters like the Wolvertons, who are some really messed up hicks (pa is human, ma is alien, son has handsome face & alien body, daughter has alien face & superbly curvy human body), and then there's Huge Retarded Duck which is an obvious Baby Huey rip-off / parody... Cool comic... |
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The Nimrodthe Nimrod is a collection of comics by European cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. For the most part, there are silly stories involving Kaput & Zosky, two cute alien guys, flying around in their pint-size spaceship, looking for planets to conquer. The only hitch is that, they may be all hopped up for battle and conquering and all that, but they are learning planet by planet that there's more to the universe than just taking over other worlds. It's REALLY funny. Sandwiched between these guys' stories are shorter stories about other space-related topics, sometimes funny, always thought-provoking. Well worth the $2.95 I spent on a comic I knew nothing about... Find out more at Fantagraphics. |
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Cartoon Network Starring: Powerpuff GirlsThe Powerpuff Girls would give that damned Pokemon craze a run for its money if only it wasn't so gender-specific oriented toward the fairer sex, that being grrrrlz. Although it's a kids' comic, I love the graphic design and the stories aren't half bad either... As the comic book describes them, the Powerpuff Girls defend the village of Townsville whenever its threatened by marauding menaces. Their names are Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. "Craig McCracken, the mad genius behind the PPG cartoon came up with the characters when he was an animation student. His student film caught the eye of the head honchos at the Cartoon Network, and now the most powerful and adorable fighting team the world has yet known are the stars of their own tv show and comic book." |
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Astro CityAstro City deserves all the praise and accolade it's getting from the comic book industry. It is simply an amazing comic about a very realistic world where superheroes & villains exist. The characters are very well rounded and the stories well conceived. My only complaint is that the current storyline about an ex-con supper villain named Steeljack (he's coated in some kind of metal skin) has gone on a tad too long for my liking, but that's easy to put up with when you've got such great characters & stories you can believe in. Check out their publisher's web page at Wildstorm Comics. |
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Acme Novelty LibraryChris Ware is a bit like me when it comes to creating comics: we both like to wear our neuroses as badges of honor. Ware's Acme Novelty Library's main focus is on the life of Jimmy Corrigan whose story is told in a very non-linear manner... sometimes focusing on his past, sometimes his youth, sometimes his near-elder present... He has alot of issues & psychological things going on and the way in which Ware tells Jimmy's story is just as unnerving. THEN... there's Ware's truly evil, diabolocal side where he creates very fine print advertisements / announcements with very dark cynical messages... all very funny, albeit sometimes very un-politically correct. I especially like his new pair of characters who are "G.I. Jim" collectors and one of them is always pulling a fast one on his friend to increase the value of his action figure collection. Chris Ware is truly a messed-up yet insanely talented individual... Find out more at Fantagraphics. |
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Empty ZoneI just stumbled across this comic while at Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square, Cambridge and because it's already into the third issue, I haven't even read it. BUT I liked the photo-real cover with the La Femme Nikita-esque grrl on the cover. The inside art is a very rich gritty black & white style that kinda looks like it was Matrix-influenced. In the meantime, I'm gonna seek out the first two issues and THEN I'll get back to you about the story & characters. I found out a little more about this comic while at the Another Universe web page. |