The Comics I Read in July ...

I've been thinking a lot about comics criticism lately. How people write about comics, how they should, how I do, how I should, what I have to do to be better at it ... And I can safely say I've come to zero conclusions. 

Hence the rather dull title to this blog. I'm blocked. I can't think of a clever way to say this or to format it or present it. What I know is that I love reading comics and I enjoy writing about them. Honestly, it helps me understand them. That might sound odd to some of you, but the insights that come out when I write are often fresh out of the keyboard, and frequently represent lightbulb moments where my appreciation for something I'd read and considered disposable is altered significantly.

So snazzy title or not, unique format to hell, I'm going to keep writing what feels right to me at the time about each book.

So, the following is essentially my pull list from the last few weeks. I'll write as I read and add each comic in as I finish formulating my thoughts on that issue.

Power Up – Kate Leth and Matt Coummings - Boom

Blending an atmosphere straight out of an indie slice-of-life comic, a storyline from traditional superhero stories, and character designs that would be as at home in a Saturday morning Nickleodeon cartoon as they would in a Manga or Anime series, the first issue of Kate Leth and Matt Cumming’s Power Up, is more than a little bit difficult to define.

And that’s by no means a bad thing. 

By avoiding anything that commits it too firmly to any single genre or style, Power Up becomes a book that could readily appeal to any number of the folk that walk through the doors of most comic shops most weeks.

Opening with the kind of prophecy that would be at home in a high fantasy novel, Power up signals its intent pretty quickly by disarming us with a neat, funny punchline.

It’s a charming book and Leth is a brave writer, happy to present her characters as real people with real flaws, as she does immediately by introducing Amie, an unreliable employee awoken early by a phone call from her boss chewing her out for neglecting to clock out the night before - perhaps not quite the emergency she presents it as, but clearly representative of a laundry list of failings she perceives in her young worker.

Amie's disinterest in any career advice is clear, and her lackadaisical, slacker nature is developed further, when, realising she is short of milk, she walks to the local shop in her partners without even the cash she needs to buy more.

The shopkeepers however, are clearly fond of her, and we’re endeared to her vicariously through the warmth they show joking with her.

We get a little more of the sunlight she brings when, riding her bus to work, reading and listening to music, she takes the time to offer a friendly wave through the window to a construction worker she passes on her journey.

Her bosses very precise complaint that she is thirteen minutes late both adds to our impression of Amie as disengaged with her job, and the mounting idea that her employer, Karen, might not be the easiest person to work for.

Achieving depth of character with such ease is an art, and it draws the reader in, so when we're hit (as Amie and Silas the goldfish are) with two sudden bolts of light - spectacularly rendered by Cummings in a neat double-page splash which features some really interesting use of colour - we're invested enough that it makes us sit up and take note.

The following attack – during which Amie and Silas shows signs the flash of light has changed them markedly - sets the scene, presumably, for the conflicts that will shape the book going forward, with Amie’s bewilderment over the sudden turn of the events mirroring our own, lulled into a false sense of security as we were by the books day-to-day beginnings.

Karen’s nature continues to reveal itself when her first concern is for the wreckage of her shop and her second the money in the till, long before she considers Amie whose explanation she dismisses and minimises, telling her she's in shock and 'can't say that stuff to anyone'. 

She presents a very different image to the TV crew five minutes later, hugging Amie on camera and telling the reporter how glad she is that her employee is safe in a creepy echo of the language she used to rejoice that her profits were still in the till a page earlier. 

As the issue closes out we zero in on two other characters, Kevin, the construction worker Amie waved at earlier, who declares he is 'having a weird day' and has something shiny and interesting in his gym bag, and Sandy, the customer at the pet shop Amie served prior to the attack, who wrenches the door of a cupboard, apparently unaware of her own strength, just as Amie wonders aloud whether she was mistaken and it was ‘just her’.

In the end, Power Up is a vibrant and interesting new book, and one that does more than enough to make me want to come back for more.

Cummings does a fine job, merging a few cartooning styles to create a very distinctive style and employing some fine colours and dropped outlines to suggest light – particularly evident in the stunning opening scene in Amie’s apartment.

I’d almost buy the next issue just to see what else he’s got in his back of tricks, but the truth is, I’m sold on every element of Power Up and if I were working in a comic shop today, I’d be pushing it on everyone who walked through the doors.

E is For Extinction 002 - Burnham, Culver, Villalobos, Herring and Cowles - Marvel

Trying to recapture one of my favourite eras in Marvel - and certainly X Men - history was always going to be a challenge and if I'm honest, this second issue of Burnham, Villalobos and company's efforts to recreate the magic of Quietly and Morrison's superb New X Men falls pretty far short of the mark. 

It's not a bad book per se, but in trying so hard to harken back to that era, the comparisons are inevitable and unfortunately this book just isn't up to the challenge for me. 

The genuinely interesting ideas explored in the first issue of the original X Men 'gone to seed' and rendered obsolete by the younger, more extreme team of mutants operating under the stewardship of Magneto, seem all but abandoned here, courtesy of some quick group therapy a la Xorn. 

The exposition seen with Beast talking to himself feels awkward to me and more than a little forced.

I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with Magneto sleeping with one of the cuckoos either, a girl that must be forty (fifty?) years his junior at least.

This is a book I really want to like, there are characters here I grew up with that I always wanted to see explored further, and here Burnham and Culvers are giving me what I want ... And I find I didn't really want it.

The dialogue tries too hard for me, with Angel's joke about redheads and the cuckoo's about Emma's hair good examples of where it just doesn't ring true. 

There's good and bad in the artwork as well, with Villalobos really shining in character design and imbuing his cast with strong personalities, but then letting them down with his backgrounds, which far too often are just flat colours. 

Not that Ian Herring isn't doing everything he can there, selecting some nice neons and blues to give the story that bubblegum future type feel, but honestly, I just don't feel he gets enough to work with and the pages come off as flat to me.

It might be that this book is just not for me and I accept that I'm being hypercritical in my comparisons to the original series it is homaging, but at the same time, I was the target audience for the book, and I'm left feeling like it could have been so much more. 

I'll give it another issue, but my hopes aren't high.

Usagi Yojimbo 147 - Sakai and Luth - Dark Horse

As this first arc since Stan Sakai returned to regular issues of Usagi Yojimbo comes to a close I realise how much I had missed reading the regular adventures of the rabbit ronin.

I first came across Usagi around 25 years ago, when I was 10 or 11 and let loose in comic shops for the first times. 

It was one of the first books I discovered, and as a fan with an already healthy interest in anthropomorphic characters (my dad bought me Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew comics when I was a kid), I was quickly sucked in to Sakai's depiction of a feudal japan populated by animals.

In the end, I'm not sure there is a world better realised in comics than the one Sakai has crafted in Usagi Yojimbo over the last 31 years. 

His meticulous research shows through in every issue, from the densely plotted multi-issue story arcs that take advantage of the breadth and depth of his cast, to the single issues that depict a custom from the time and slot our hero in as a guide to the beauty of kite making, or bamboo cutting, or the tea ceremony, to the shorter arcs, like this one, where Usagi wanders into a new town and becomes embroiled in its politics and people.

This issue is the last of a three-part story titled 'The Thief and the Kunoichi (female ninja)' in which we were reintroduced t several favourite cast members, Kitsune, the master thief and her ward Kiyoko, and Chizu, the ousted female leader of the infamous Neko Ninja clan. 

On the surface, the story revolved around a conspiracy involving the shadow lord Hikiji (a regular unseen antagonist in the series) and a secret treaty, but essentially that was a backdrop to a wider exploration of Kitsune and Chizu's opposing morals and motives and their respective relationships with our hero.

In the past Kitsune and Usagi have been travelling companions and friends, Usagi disapproving but not judgemental over Kitsune's 'profession', and always quick to defend her and get her out of the trouble that seems to follow her around.

Chizu and Usagi, in contrast, have fought against and beside each other in bloody wars and battles, developing a respect for each other that has transcended their conflicting backgrounds. 

The intense dislike the two form for each other, practically at first glance, and the dynamic between them as this tale progresses, is the grist to the mill of the story, placing Usagi firmly in the role of peacemaker as they come increasingly closer to blows. 

Both Kitsune and Chizu have in the past demonstrated romantic feelings for Usagi, albeit only ever in the hushed tones and polite understated way so typical of the book's charm, leading us here to the issue's conclusion, which I would be prepared to bet left many fans clapping for joy.

Chizu places a kiss on Usagi's lips as a farewell, much to Kitsune's consternation and Usagi's embarrassment.

The samurai finds himself forced to cringingly explain it away as 'a way foreigners show affection'. 

Kitsune responds by planting her own kiss on our perplexed hero, leaving him reeling as she walks away declaring 'not bad', only to reveal later to Kiyoko she simply used the moment as a distraction during which to steal her friend's purse. 

Sakai knows his characters well and its easy to believe the dialogue writes itself, with every word uttered seeming so natural and so clearly the distinct voice of each member of his cast.

Similarly, as a long time fan, it's easy to take for granted the extraordinarily talented and consistent artist Sakai is at this point, with every panel contributing to the book's eloquence, and every issue achieving the high standards he has set over the last 200 + issues.

Sakai is a formidable cartoonist and Usagi Yojimbo a true accomplishment in an era where so much of what sits on the shelves is so disposable in nature.

And save for the excellent contributions of Tom Luth colouring each issue's cover, it's an accomplishment that is solely that of Stan Sakai's, a man who has been drawing, writing and lettering his own book for 31 years. 

When I fantasise over the idea that I might save money one day by pruning my substantial pull list down to two or three comics, Usagi Yojimbo is the first book I know I just can't do without.

Recent reprints and collections have made Usagi's long back catalogue a lot more accessible and I can't recommend enough, that anyone who has never checked it out do so. Actually in truth, Usagi Yojimbo is a good enough comic that you could pick up a single issue and be at home in the space of a page or two. The next time you see it sat waiting on the shelves, consider giving it a home, it's a choice you won't regret.

Black Science 16 - Remender, Scalera, Dinisio and Wooton - Image 

As The Pillar counts down to what we're told will be its final jump Black Science 16 pulls its cast of dimensionauts together to craft a story which is the culmination of a long and dangerous journey through parallel dimensions and some of the darkest science fiction I've ever had the pleasure of reading on a comic page. 

And it has been dangerous as we're reminded by the recap page on the inside cover. Many of the characters that started this journey are no longer with us, some dead, some disappeared into the worlds we've visited alongside Grant McKay and his crew. 

One of the cleverest things about Black Science is that underneath the high concept sci-fi, non-stop action and mesmerising creations we've been introduced to, another story has quietly been telling itself: a story about family, our basic humanity and love. 

In the opening scene here, we're reminded of one of the human stories which has taken centre-stage in terms of forging the relationships within the book, the affair between Grant and Rebecca, a scene which sets the stage for a revelation later in the issue of Rebecca's motives, and one which is worth reading again once that motive has become clear. 

Here Grant is on the cusp of coming to terms with the idea that he has abandoned his family (well, his children at least, notably, no mention of his wife) to his work before he is distracted by Rebecca, a mistake he will be forever trying to atone for.

And in fact, back in the present, we find him doing just that, diving headlong into the jaws of death to try to fix some of the damage his dimensional counterpart has done to this world, thinking as he does of the parallels (;-) between his mother's and his own infidelity and resolving not to blame anyone else for his mess as she once did him for revealing her indiscretion. 

Kadir too, is faced with one of his past transgressions in the form of a version of Ward, the man he left to die on a battle field. 

The dialogue here is neat, alluding to the version Kadir left behind, while at the same time setting a distinction and clear motive for this man's anger. 

Kadir conquers his foe and any sense of guilt he has over what happened in the past, telling us that he puts aside nobility for pragmatism, contrasting acutely with the hero Grant is trying to be.

This contrast plays out as Rebecca's true intentions become clear and Kadir is forced to step in to stop her using The Pillar's final jump for her own selfish ends.

Grant, diving headlong into the situation, doesn't stop to consider what is actually happening, effectively aiding Rebecca and finally murdering Kadir in his confusion, just as The Pillar jumps for one last time, Grant effectively having failed again to protect his family, blindly responding to his lover over reason. 

One would think that his descent was complete there and in fact we are left watching a scene where it seems, at least, that McKay managed to cure the contagion that plagued the world they left behind, only for that peace to be disturbed by the arrival of Chandra, still possessed by malevolent life forms bent on destruction, which she proceeds in unleashing on the already ravaged world.

Wow. As I often am, I was blown away by this issue of Black Science. I truly believe it's the best work Remender has ever done, and in fact, reading his blog in the back matter, you wonder whether leaving Marvel for creator owned work isn't the smartest decision he could ever make if this is the kind of work he can produce. 

Interestingly, there are also notes in that blog of wanting to commit time to his family, eerily echoing some of Grant McKay's own regrets in this very issue. 

Scalera too is a revelation. Years ago, I would assume a bravura performance from an artist of this nature would see him scooped up by one of the big two publishers, but these days, artists seem to be sticking it out with companies like Image and Dark Horse and others, and I couldn't be more delighted. 

Scalera is Black Science, the terrifying creatures he designs and the incredible alien lands that seem to flow out of his pen like ink are the glue that holds the very human story Remender is crafting together. 

Dinisio's colours are the perfect complement, dark and moody where they need to be, but never stepping into murky, muddy territory that might hamper our understanding of the scene. 

I don't know where things will go next with Black Science, we're promised a significant shift in the story from here on, with Remender hinting that the damaged pillar may not continue to operate in the way we've seen up to know. 

Whatever it is and wherever we go, I'll be along for the ride, this team has earned my faith for now and for the future. 

Giant Days 5 - Allison, Treiman, Cougar and Campbell - Boom

While this is an end-of-term issue, thankfully, it’s not the last issue of this rather wonderful new series, because unexpectedly, Giant Days is rapidly making its way towards the back of my comics pile – I save the best until last when I read.

I'm a fan of John Allison and I've enjoyed the previous self-published books in the Giant Days series a great deal, but in single issue form, on a monthly schedule, and with the exceptional creative team he has gathered around him, it's become something very, very special.

I don't think there is a single example of fiction that so closely captures my own experience of University and I regularly feel a twinge of nostalgia reading, for my own 'Giant Days'.

That said, for me there is one thing that particularly makes this series special to me, and that's the amazing talents of Lissa Treiman.

An artist I have to admit, I had heard nothing of before, Treiman’s work has brought Giant Days to life and here she is on top of her gifted game, bringing every one of the characters to life in their own utterly unique way.

Treiman’s beautiful vibrant cartooning is the perfect toolto capture Susan, Esther and Daisy, who appear as alive in movement as they do in expression, conveying to the reader an abundance of emotions and moods - the bustling confusing, contradictory, hormonal hodge-podge experience of being a teenager let loose on the world put down on paper.

And it’s so lovingly done. You get the point, that Treiman has fallen in love with her adopted cast and through her pencil at their best and at their most vulnerable moments.

There are so many moments here, it’s difficult to single them out for fear of leaving something worthy behind, but I suspect the scene where an obviously uncomfortable Susan declares ‘this stupid dumb dress, does not fit my stupid dumb body’ rang true with a lot of people.

And that’s Giant Days at its best, when it reaches a sense of something you’ve felt yourselves and the lives of the characters become mirrors to your own experiences for a few short seconds.

Allison – who one might have supposed would struggle to relinquish art chores once his own responsibility – has shown himself to be adept at writing for someone else and gives Treiman a lot of room to work here, with a number of silent sequences where the art tells the tale all by itself.

Those silent, subtle, elegant and very human moments are what take this from a good comic to a great comic and adds layers to these already complex characters.

At one point a clearly hurt Daisy watches her former crush walk through the door on the arm of another woman. We all feel the knock her already fragile confidence takes here which makes the moment later when we see her letting go dancing with Ed and in a final moment of rare abandon, planting a kiss on him, all that more joyful.

Esther, the veritable life and soul of the party is animated from the get go at the idea of the ball, her infectious excitement eventually rubbing off on the others, as she disappears into the throng to dance the night away. That only makes the sucker punch to the gut she feels when she realises men are betting on who can bed her first hurt that much more, and her isolation is palpable as she makes her lonely walk through the party, looking longingly at other happy couples, and finally leaning against a wall in a corner giving in to her instincts and calling ‘The Boy’ she seems to have been trying to forget, only to be left alone one more time.

Susan’s discomfort is obvious from the first pages of the issue as Esther tries to help her friends find dresses for the ball, and I suspect her ‘this stupid dumb dress does not fit my stupid dumb body’ line, was one which reached a lot of readers.

Even dressed to kill for the party, she still isn’t comfortable, her arms are folded and she describes being ‘trussed up like a turkey’, and it’s only in consoling Daisy that she finds her comfort zone again, empathy and concern etched on her face, leaning in to her friend. As the night goes on, and he flask grows dry, she eases into something a little more comfortable in animated argument with McGraw, but even then she is looking over her shoulder, conscious of what other people might think of their leaving together. 

My favourite Susan moment here is when she's boarded her train home to Northampton and she is sat, feet up, magazine out, and in that moment, at perhaps her most comfortable, only to look across the aisle and see the man she loves to hate (or hates to love?) in exactly the same position, and we're reminded one more time of how similar this unlikely couple might actually be. 

I feel like I have only skimmed the surface here, and that’s how Giant Days feels to read.

We’re just getting to know these characters as they get to know each other and settle in to University Life, and just like that, the Christmas Holidays come along, everyone leaves for home, and if my own experience is anything to go by, everyone comes back slightly different …

I will be around for that moment and you should be too. If you’re not reading Giant Days, you’re missing out on one of the most human books out there, beautifully drawn and written, these are characters to fall in love with.

Lumberjanes 16 - Stevenson, Watters, Ellis, Allen and Laiho

The current Lumberjanes arc might be my favourite of the series so far. 

I don't know if it's that the creative team are at a point where they know their cast so well, that every line, every pen-stroke, every twist and turn of the plot, is as smooth and natural as can be. 

Or perhaps it's that I've grown to know and love the characters and their world so well that I slip into each new episode like a favourite item of clothing and allow the adventures of the scouts from Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady Types to wash straight over me. 

Either way, Lumberjanes is a tremendous comic series that shows no signs of wear and tear and rather just ups it's game with each issue, with a talented team of creators, clearly having the time of their life producing the sleeper hit of the last decade.

The flashback scenes in sepia tone that open the issue give the world Watters, Ellis and Stevenson have been building for the last year and a half, some history and depth and seeing the young Abigail, Rosie and Nellie the bear woman, as young Lumberjanes and troop leader themselves, gives a lovely sense of synchronicity to the proceedings. 

Maarta Laiho works wonders here with a limited palette and plays with lighting to glorious effect here to tease out tension tonally.

The introduction of the arc's monster threat, The Grootslang, is deftly done, with Jen's in character scepticism adding a nice comic moment, but also clouding our own certainty over the validity of Rosie's tall tale. 

The dialogue throughout, as always, is so natural and it's little wonder that Stevenson has had a call up from the big leagues, but I will miss the dynamic double act she has formed with Watters here, one of the things that many things that has made Lumberjanes such a smash hit. 

After the last arc, which saw the Lumberjanes split up and making their way through parallel storylines, it's a lot of fun here to see 'the band back together', and watching the characters play off each other is a joy. 

There's an understanding too, amongst the creative team, of how to use the page count they have to the best effect and the way the pace quickens toward the dramatic cliffhanger is very nearly done, with cutbacks between Abigail, Rosie and Nellie and the scouts of the Roanoke cabin, playing out like a cinema rice action sequence. 

Laiho shines again, with some brilliant (no pun intended) use of whites and greys to illustrate the mounting blizzard, and lull is into a false sense of security that makes the detonation on the mountainside and subsequent Avalanche all the more expressive and impressive.

One of my favourite things about this most recent arc is the return of Brooke Allen to the art chores. Allen is THE Lumberjanes artist and if this is the story she's been laying in wait to tell it was worth the wait, because she's extraordinarily good here. 

The characters flow from her pen as if she's been drawing them for decades and her use of composition to aid her colleagues in creating that powerful climax is significant. 

With a number of powerful half page splashes to her credit before the issues close (Abigail with her back to us facing down the mountain alone is a particular favourite), one could be forgiven for assuming the artist didn't have much more to give.

Well, underestimate the incomparable Allen at your own peril, because she's got a monster surprise waiting on the final page, which plays beautifully on Jen's (and our own) earlier scepticism and delivers the perfect cliffhanger to leave us holding our breath until next month. 

Invincible 121 - Kirkman, Ottley, Wooton and Beaulieu - Image

Invincible is a comic capable of existing comfortably at two distinct paces; a frenetic, relentless, break-neck that is amongst the best all-out-action superhero comics currently published and a calmer, more deliberate that gives characters room to breathe and grow and is more reminiscent of some of the better TV dramas than it is your average costumed crime-fighter caper.

Currently, Kirkman has been giving us more of the former, with Mark and Eve and baby Terra settling into their new life away from Earth giving the creative team ample chance to lighten the mood, with some deft family comedy and some incredible sci-fi artwork from Ottley ho clearly enjoys himself when let loose with a few less rules. 

However, for this issue we're dropped back into the world they left behind and that tension dial is turned right back up to 11.

There's a neat parallel here too, with Mark and Eve ostensibly having spent the last few issues playing happy families, it's interesting to note that Kirkman chooses to return is to Earth just in time to see The Immortal holding off the planet's new despotic ruler Robot at all costs to protect his own brood. 

And with that explosive opening we find ourselves in the company of the resistance, Earth's last line of heroes fighting ... Well, what are they fighting exactly? 

Kirkman takes his superheroes places others don't go, and the nature of this issues' debate regarding whether or not Robot's means were justified by the world he's built, is brought to life beautifully in the sense of unease Brit expresses as the grizzled beleaguered heroes sit licking their wounds and planning their next move. 

Ottley steps up his game here too, showing he's just as adept at depicting a nuanced conversation amongst differing personalities with conflicting ideals and emotions, as he is the balls-to-the-wall rescue that makes up the first part of the issue. 

Brit particularly plays the veteran soldier with nothing left to fight for here to perfection, all slumped shoulders and furrowed brow, letting the drama play out perfectly.

Part of me wonders at how Kirkman plans to resolve this story, because I suspect the question of whether Robot is right or wrong is one that splits audiences as much as it splits the resistance here, and should he be toppled in any kind of triumphant one, it may be difficult for a section of the readership to enjoy. 

That being said, I can't see a way I won't be reading, because Invincible continues to be one of the smartest and most consistently enjoyable superhero comics I read. 

And I suspect part of that is that it dares to present shades of grey as it has here and doesn't presume to tell me what's good and bad, who's right and wrong, instead presenting characters to us that raise questions and leave us the time and space to think for ourselves.