The Holiday Reading Pile Part I
FOR one reason and another, I haven't had the enthusiasm to write about comics that I previously did in recent months.
But today I feel an urge. Perhaps that's because I've been away for a few days and had a real chance to unwind. Perhaps it's because during that time I have had a chance to really enjoy reading some really good comics. Things that are worth writing about.
I don't want to spoil that impetus, so I'm just going to let thoughts pour out, with no real structure and no real need to elaborate where I don't feel an impulse to.
Confession time. I don't understand this book. It's too smart for me and somewhere along the way it completely lost me. I realise I don't particularly look forward to reading an issue and I haven't been very emotionally involved in the story. I get the impression it's good ... but it never really gripped me. That's not to say I don't recognise any quality in it. Frazer Irving is a god. His style is utterly beautiful and just completely unique and I think there's a good chance at this point that I will pick up any book that he works on just so I can gaze in awe at his artwork. And he definitely steps up his game here to give the book as satisfying a final act as any artist can. And I do like Grant Morrison ... Or at least, I have liked some Grant Morrison books. There are bits of Annihilator, set pieces, where I was gripped, but it just didn't carry. In fairness, this final issue was as close to pulling threads together for me (as a reader who couldn't really have given you a good summary of the story prior to turning the first page of the last issue) as it could probably have hoped to be, and I appreciated some of the clever twists that stand alone here. However, for me, it speaks volumes that Morrison had to literally spell out the 'smoking Chekhov gun' he apparently placed all the way back in the first issue. It certainly didn't set off any lightbulb moment for me. Apparently, we are getting a sequel too. Will I be getting it? Arghhh, I really shouldn't ...
I've been looking forward to this since I saw it on the shelf, and it's a book that on paper, is exactly my cup of tea; Coming of age, independent comic, plays loosely with folklore, beautiful cartoon style, pathos, all of that and more. I like it a lot, although I wonder whether it wouldn't have been even better given a little bit more time to develop. Every now and then a sequence feels crammed onto a page and it loses a little clarity in translation. That's more than made up for by the deft way that Exley imbues his character's with a pathos that defies the sparse dialogue and short story form. When Exley's hero explains to the reader that his friends have abandoned him to a summer alone, I felt a pang of nostalgia and melancholy that carried me back to my own childhood the way only the best writers can. The titular golem too, carries a sadness about him, that without feeling forced, creates another layer of depth to Exley's story. There are youthful lessons to be learnt here too, as there are in most children's books and I get the feeling this is a book that would inspire the imagination of a young reader as so many books did me at that age. Perhaps another boy, left alone for the summer, exploring the woods behind his house, lay on his back in the sun reading Golemchik, might find a focus for his own imagination that staves off loneliness for one more summer. Great work, highly recommended, now let me just find a young person to hand it over to.
I don't buy a lot of Marvel books any more and they need to offer something pretty special to convince me to dip into an event like 'Secret Wars', but this book ticks some boxes for me. I loved Grant Morrison's New X Men run when it first came around, it felt fresh and new and grounbreaking and somehow rebellious, like it was flicking the v's (or flipping the bird to any North American readers) at mainstream comics (wow! It's a revelation to realise I was bored of mainstream comics all the way back then ...). E is for Extinction manages to retread some of that vibe - at least in content if not in delivery - and it brings back all of the characters I loved so much from that run, Beak and Angel are here, Dust and Quentin Quire, and all in a recognisable form to me, rather than the characters they have become since, which always felt to me like watered down versions of what Morrison intended. Villalobos does a great job of aping Burnham aping Quietly, and while it's not quite up to that artist's high standards, it's certainly nice to look at. As a 'What If?' mini series, I find I can buy in to the plot better than I might usually and while this doesn't necessarily break ground in the same way the original seemed to,it's fun, anarchic and harkens back to an era I loved. I'll stick with this I think.
I knew nothing of We Stand On Guard other than the fact that it was written by Brian K. Vaughn, who rarely puts a foot wrong for me, and a tweet I saw on the day I read it worrying (with some irony) that it might be an 'unpatriotic' book for an American to read on July 4th.
I liked it a lot. It's a slow burn, with a simple concept that builds the world we find our characters in. And yes, it is one that I suspect a lot of American readers will feel a modicum of discomfort over, and will likely cause some gnashing of teeth in the corners of the internet these things usually find their way over to. For the rest of us, there's a solid concept here, that looks, at least at this early stage, to be built around Vaughn's usual penchant for fully realised characters. Our heroine is already interesting prior to the twist towards the end of the issue that adds several layers to her personality in one shotgun moment (yeah, I was going for something there). The rest of the cast look good too, and there is some wonderful dialogue here, including the neat little set-piece sure to hit Tumblr in style about why Superman is 'clearly' a Canadian. I suspect my North American friends will better appreciate the US vs Canada angle this series is likely to revel in, and I may be missing that already, but what I get is a lot of reasons to add this book to my list and none not to. Steve Skroce particularly, whom is a name I had never heard of prior to this book, is sublime, dealing perfectly with the early action and the gore it deals to creating a truly distinctive main cast of very human looking people as they emerge later in the book. Matt Hollingsworth deserves a shout too for those snow seasons, which can't be easy to work with, but he gives a really cinematic quality to with his powerful colour work. I think I'm on board for this one, all that remains is to see whether it's a book read best in single issues or in trades.
I've been banging on to a few people about Sex for a while now in a number of different places. It surprises me how little it gets talked about, and I wonder if that means it isn't being read by a lot of people or that most people who are reading it don't really see a lot worth talking about. Both surprise me. For me, the most interesting thing about it is that it is clearly Joe Casey telling the Batman story DC would have never let him tell. In doing so, using analogues in place of those branded characters, Casey is exploring new ground and telling a story that is genuinely thoughtful and unique. He has given different life to characters we know, particularly Catwoman and Robin, who in the form of Annabelle Lagravanese and Keenan are forging very different paths than any other creators have laid for them and becoming something really special.
The plot is complex and developing over time, so it's not a book I would recommend anyone diving into, but it's certainly worth picking up a few trades and spending some time with. It isn't shy, and it uses sex explicitly and often as a staging device to all kinds of other situations and conversations (almost like sex is a natural thing that we all do :-O), while at the same time, playing a much more considered flirtatious game of cat and mouse with its two 'romantic leads' that offers an intriguing balance and maturity. Personally, I think this is a really, really good book and its a travesty if more people aren't reading it. Perhaps we're all just too embarrassed to admit it, I've certainly realised too late on more than one occasion when turning a page in public on my commute only to be confronted by some graphic orgy scene or other ... and the trick Casey plays on me inevitably every time is that the dialogue across the scenes is almost always so intriguing it takes me five minutes to realise the artwork accompanying it and what exactly it is that the people staring wide-eyed over my shoulder are looking at. Suffice to say, Sex will be staying on my list. It's just too absorbing for me to not want to keep coming back. And I will continue to tell other people why they need to be buying the best damn superhero book on the shelf without a single superhero in it.
Comments
Post a Comment