Posts tagged comics

Flex Mentallo

Thanks to the digital age, there are very few comic books out there that I want to read but don’t’ have access to.

One book that does fall into that category, however, is Flex Mentallo.

Flex Mentallo was a four issue mini-series that spun-off of Grant Morrison’s run on DC’s DOOM PATROL comic. It featured the adventures of a character based on Charles Atlas. Though this early collaboration between Morrison and artist, Frank Quitely was published in 1996 with little controversy, years later Atlas’ lawyers later filed a copyright infringement suit against DC comics. The suit was dismissed, but DC has since seemed hesitant to republish the mini-series in America.

Until now.

Earlier this year, DC announced they would indeed be re-releasing Flex Mentallo as a hard cover collection with bonus materials. It comes out next month! Here’s the cover:

It’s been a long time coming, but my body is ready.

My First X-Men Comic

Way back before there were X-Men movies, back before Wolverine was a household name, I was 11 years old and my grandmother bought me my first X-Men comic book from Smith’s grocery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.

It was Uncanny X-Men 187. It looked like this:

In it, Storm (Halle Berry in the movies) has a mohawk and has lost her weather controlling powers. She and an old Cheyenne shaman break into a high rise, and shoot a bunch of aliens in order to save Forge, Storm’s lover and the man responsible for her losing her powers. Based on that short description alone, it’s better than most of the comics I’ve read this decade. Here’s some panels from it:

It is nothing like any X-Men comic that has come out in the past ten years. Wolverine only appeared in a two panel flash back. The whole thing blew my mind. Writer Chris Claremont and artist John Romita Jr are the X-Men to me.

Wizard Buys A Hat

They come out to Broadway and they look for me
I’m on the red steps smoking a cigarette
Easy to recognize
Black bandages on my eyes
This is the church, these are the congregants

-Wizard Buys A Hat by The Mountain Goats

The music references get more complex in Casanova: Avaritia

DC Comics and The New 52

My friend Dave suggested a couple of months ago that I blog about DC Comics and their complete relaunch of their comics line with 52 new series and a rarely tried new strategy of making digital copies of a book available for purchase on the same day the physical copy is available in stores.

I kind of held off on writing anything. I’m not sure why - I think because I read a lot of comic websites and commentary and in my mind, had nothing new to offer a conversation that has been pretty well beat to death. But since most of my readers here (Hi, you two) aren’t that into comics, I suppose it’s safe to assume anything I have to say on the topic is new to them/you.

So, this’ll get kinda nerdy and a little inside baseball, so if that’s not your thing, feel free to move on to something else. It’s a big internet and I’m sure there’s something on it you’ll like (might I recommend this in particular).

So as I said above, DC is relaunching their entire line. That means they’re cancelling all of their books (in some cases, books that were closing in on 1000 issues of uninterupted publishing), and restarting with 52 individual series, some brand new titles and some relaunches of pre-existing books. Most of the existing characters have been redesigned (a lot of them by fan-favorite artist Jim Lee) and tinkered with to be more relevant - and hopefully attract new readers.

I’ve got a few thoughts about the above strategy:

1. I’m in favor of trying to attract new comic readers. Comics have been limping along for decades now, not quite dying, but definitely not healthy. There are lots of theories on why this is and how to fix it. It feels like a pretty insurmountable task. You’d think if blockbusters like Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man couldn’t bring attention and new readers to the hobby, nothing could.

2. While I’m in favor of trying to attract new readers, something about this particular attempt seems a little… off? Desperate? I think it’s the need to make the books feel relevant. The only thing worse than not being relevant is trying to appear relevant. Relevance, to me, seems like one of those things that is inherent in a character or the voices of creators or it’s not. You can’t really force it. And if you could force it, it wouldn’t be by getting a 50 year old artist to attach armor, collars, and flanges to pre-existing characters. I loved Jim Lee in the 90’s. He’s a talented artist, but his aesthetic feels overdone and uninspired. How many younger, more vital feeling artists are there out there that could have really brought something new to these designs?

That being said, not every redesign seems quite so cloying and cynical. Grant Morrison and Rags Morales take on the early career of Superman in Action Comics looks incredible. Morrison is harkening back to Superman’s early 30’s roots as a crime-buster and working man’s champion. And the costume? No armor. No flanges. No collars. Just a t-shirt, dirty jeans, and a little cape. It feels like a fresh take - like a re-imagining that acknowledges it’s past but strives to say something new.

3. Renumbering is probably a good thing. Maybe. There’s a tiny little part of me that hates to see Detective Comics (home to Batman) get relaunched with a new #1 when it’s only 120 or so issues away from 1000. That being said, that kind of milestone is special to long time comic fans and probably a little intimidating to new readers. The idea that you’ve missed that many issues of a book and might have to “catch up” in order to understand things is daunting to the say the least. So, a new number one provides a jumping on point that is possibly mentally easier to swallow. That being said, I kind of feel like books need to be written so that any issue is a decent jumping on point or at least catches you up enough so as not to be lost. Because, five years down the line, Dectective Comics will be up to 60 issues and to a new reader, trying to be convinced of the medium’s accessibility, that might as well be 1000.

4. Relaunching books and rebooting characters is fine - as long at the spirit of the character is maintained. I’m not a purist. Sure, I have my own little personal bugaboos, like the neckline of Superman’s costume for instance. It should look like this:

Never this:

But aside from that and a few other minor issues, I’m not against re-imagining characters and stories - even characters like Superman that have been around for over 70 years - as long as the spirit of the character is maintained. Want to mess around with Batman and say Robin is his son or something? Okay, fine. Go for it. But do something, say, like make Batman a cold blooded killer? That doesn’t work because it betrays the essence of the character. There are a lot of comic fans and professionals who don’t like the DC relaunch because they consider continuity to be sacrosanct. That’s fine. I’ve just never been that guy. Continuity is a good tool and a terrible master.

So there you go: four rambling, near-meaningless thoughts about the relaunch, which can be summed up, I suppose, as I’m not against it, I don’t love all the choices being made. But at the end of the day, who cares what I think if it brings in new readers. Because, ultimately, that’s what I want. I like the old DC characters that I grew up with, but I love comics. The medium is bigger than Superman and questions about his uniform or origin story - and while the paradigm will eventually change, for the time being a healthy DC means a healthy comic book industry (relatively speaking). So good luck DC. I hope it works.

Casanova: Avaritia preview

Yay!

Click here for a six page preview. BEWARE! DIRTY WORDS!

Heroes Con 2011

Last weekend I jumped in the car and drove six hours to Charlotte, North Carolina for a comic book convention called Heroes Con. I’ve been to a couple of comic book conventions, but not for several years, and never to Heroes Con.

I went, specifically, so I could mark one more name off my “People I Want To Meet” list; namely, comic book writer, Matt Fraction:

Fraction was really nice. We got to talk for a few minutes about Grant Morrison, Casanova, and The Mountain Goats. I asked if I could get a picture with him and he said, “Yeah. Okay, I’m gonna slurp on my coke and pretend to eyeball you.” Which he did. I got the kid in line behind me to take the picture. In hindsight, I should have given him a little tutorial on my camera first:

I also got Fraction to sign my Casanova: Luxuria hardcover:

I got a chance to do some other neat stuff while I was there. I bought a mini-comic from Becky Cloonan that’s only available at cons right now. I got to watch comics legend, Michael Golden, sketch a picture of Batman, and I got to basically walk around for four or five hours immersed in a hobby that I love.

My haul for the weekend included two of Stuart Immonen’s sketchbooks, a Paul Pope mini-comic, and the aforementioned Becky Cloonan book, Wolves:

When I wasn’t at the con, I got to try some different restaurants, my favorite of which was a braised pork cheek sandwich with pickled vegetables from a farm to table place called Blue Harvest Grille. I also had some good soul food at a place called Merts, and some mediocre sushi at a place I won’t name.

It was a good trip, but probably my last con for a long while.

This is a comic book cover

If you were at all into comics in the 90’s, or were a depressed goth kid who probably had an inappropriate relationship with their drama teacher, then you’ve heard of Neil Gaimen’s Sandman.

Dave McKean did the cover art for the book. He, like lots of comic artists, often sells his original art to collectors. I’ve bought some original art from creators I like from time to time. Most of it is a black and white, inked drawing on an 11x7 piece of bristol board.

Here’s what Dave McKean original art looks like:

I, like most people, I’m sure, assumed McKean’s work was done in photoshop. Apparently, it was mixed media that was then photographed and printed. Amazing. Here’s what the resulting cover looked like:

Guh…

Had to look the Captain America and Thor trailers up online since I wasn’t home to see the Super Bowl pieces. I have to admit, the ten year old in me and the thirty-seven year old in me are geeking out pretty hard. I’m slightly worried about the Captain America movie, but mostly hopeful. I still can’t believe there’s going to be an Avengers movie in 2012…

X-Men: First Class

Honestly, I never thought I’d be excited about an X-Men movie again. Iron Man kind of shined a big spotlight on how mediocre the the mutant movies really were by showing us how good a Marvel movie could be.

Every time I see a new image or hear something new about X-Men: First Class, though, I have to rethink my stance.

It’s set in the 60’s. It only kind of nods at comic continuity and previous movie continuity. January Jones is in it. Do I have to go on? I do? Okay, here are some pictures:

It’s definitely not stacking up to be your standard X-Men movie, thank goodness. Someone, Erik Larsen maybe, theorized that some comic properties work best in the decades they debuted in. Superman has a certain charm in the 40’s that is missing in modern incarnations, for instance. And there’s something about the X-Men set in the 60’s surrounded by issues like civil rights and the bourgeoning fear of atomic power. It just works. In my head anyway. We’ll see this summer.

State of The Union - Comics Edition

The recently deceased Harvey Pekar famously (well, famously in comic circles) said, “Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.” That little bit of truth is one of the reasons why now, decades after my grandmother assured me I would one day outgrow them, I still love comics. While technology is finally starting to catch up with imagination, it’s still relatively expensive. If you’ve got the talent, though, a pencil, some paper, and access to a photocopier, you can tell any story you want, budget be damned. Comics are pirate radio.

I like all kinds of comics. I grew up reading Marvel and DC super hero comics. On the rare occassion that I’d find a comic from another company they always seemed strange to me; alien; unsettling. They even smelled weird. It was the differences in ink or paper, I’m sure. Or I was just imagining it. Whatever it was, it’s the kind of thing I love nowadays. I still like the good old Marvel/DC stuff, but there’s nothing I like more than finding something new and weird on the comic rack that I’ve never seen before.

I miss old spinner racks. There used to be nothing better than spending a half an hour crouched down in front of a magazine stand or leaning next to a spinner rack for a half an hour reading comic while my mom grocery shopped. You don’t really find comic in grocery stores anymore. That’s a tragedy for the industry and for kids as far as I’m concerned.

I love the way comic properties are represented in television and movies these days, even though I give a lot of it a pass on a regular basis. I would have given an eye as a kid to have an Avengers cartoon to watch. It can’t really hold my interest these days, but I like that it’s there for kids. I also like that there’s a Batman cartoon called The Brave and The Bold that seems hell bent on committing every obscure DC character ever to celluloid - or whatever TV show are made of these days.

It’s weird that everybody and their mother knows who Iron Man is now.

One of the best comics I’ve read in years is about a federal agent on an Indian Reservation. One of the other best comics I’ve read in years was about Superman arm wrestling Samson and Atlas at the same time. Comics have range

Comics are disposable entertainment. There are some I want to keep forever, but when I’m done with most of them, they get sold, trashed, or donated. I’m always scared to donate them, though, because lots of them have adult content, but adults will buy them for kids without ever looking at them because, you know, comics are for kids…

I go to the comic book store every Wednesday when the new books come out. I can only think of one week ever where I couldn’t find something to buy. My guess is I’ll probably go every Wednesday until I can’t anymore.