Night Business #4 – Quick Review

By: Benjamin Marra (writer, artist, everything)

The Story: More excitement from Benjamin Marra’s comic series set in the mid-1980’s featuring strippers, pimps, bodyguards and a killer.

Review: Benjamin Marra is one of those hidden gems in truly independent comics.  Everything he puts out is just awesome whether it is The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd or Gangsta Rap Posse or (in this case) the fourth installment of Night Business.  Marra launched Night Business several years ago and even though we’re only on the fourth issue, the story is straight-forward enough that the release schedule doesn’t bug you.  That is a pretty impressive feat considering this reviewer can lose the plot thread in Big 2 superhero comics even when Marvel double ships them.  I think it says that Marra is just a better storyteller than those other guys.

The story itself is kinda silly at first glance.  It revolves around a talent agency for strippers and the bodyguards who protect them, but it also features hookers, pimps, a serial killer and a female vigilante who hunts the streets on a motorcycle wearing nothing but a full-face helmet and her lingerie.  It’s violent and features full on sexual content.  Sounds wacky, right?  But I totally could have a seen a movie with this plotline in 1982 starring Billy Dee Williams and Shannon Tweed.  It would have been one of those movies like Roadhouse that was rotten when it came out, but took on a different life when played repeatedly on independent TV stations as a Saturday afternoon movie and folks slowly started to appreciate the purity of the story and the unintentional comedy.

The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd #1 – Review

By: Benjamin Marra (writer, artist, letters….everything)

The Story: It’s time for political satire as sexy NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd tries to get the scoop that will take down the Bush administration and still make it to her date with George Clooney.

What’s Good: This comic is a real indy gem.  And, this is “indy” in the truest sense as Benjamin Marra writes and self-publishes his own stuff through his imprint, Traditional Comics.  If you love political satire, you are going to love this comic that takes time to poke fun at Republicans and Democrats alike.
The very first scene is a great capsule of what to expect in this comic.  The opening page shows Ms. Dowd enjoying her morning coffee in full, sexy lingerie get-up with a pistol tucked into the top of the thigh-highs.  Thought bubbles show her thinking about how she has to get a source who can implicate the Bush administration in the outing of CIA operative, Valerie Plame, but she also has to get to her dinner date with George Clooney.  Then, out of nowhere, an assassin busts into her home and a James Bond-style battle ensues over her laptop computer complete with over-the-top intentionally campy dialog.  It’s just wonderful.
Of course, this is hilarious because while Ms. Dowd doesn’t go on TV in real life wearing lingerie (of course), you do get the impression that she probably does kinda enjoy her status of being an attractive woman in a niche filled with fat bald men and frumpy women commentators.  And if you’re going to run with that satire thought train, it makes perfect sense that she would be dating George Clooney, noted playboy and lion of the celebrity wing of the Democratic party.   Finally, Marra couldn’t have picked a better scandal that the Democrats foamed at the mouth over and the Republicans yawned at than the entire Valerie Plame affair (even if it is a bit dated now).
But, the Republicans aren’t safe in this comic either.  Ms. Dowd is 100% the hero of this story as she tries to use her feminine wiles to get a spineless Scooter Libby (remember him?) to spill the dirt on Karl Rove and Dick Cheney (who come off as right-wing nutjobs).  The whole affair is just a exercise in the insanely ridiculous as Ms. Dowd dodges bullets, engages in shoot outs with assassins working for a Blackwater-like agency and, of course, tries to get to her date with George Clooney (which she mentions about every other panel in the comic).
Marra’s black and white art is effective as hell.  He has a unique style and while he probably won’t be winning an Eisner as best artist anytime soon, his storytelling ability is just top-notch.  I almost wish more of the big-name artists would stop fussing with making a beautiful image and just tell us a story.  All that being said, I’d bet that Marra learned to draw by sketching sexy women because he draws a very beautiful female form.

Strange Tales II #3 – Review

By: Nick Bertozzi, Chris Sinderson, Terry Moore, James Stokoe, Benjamin Marra, Tim Hamilton, Kate Beaton, Bill Crabtree, Dean Haspiel, Toby Cypress, Michael Deforge, Alex Robinson, Eduardo Medeiros, Harvey Pekar, Ty Templeton, KT Smith AND Jody LeHeup (editor)

The Story: An anthology of short stories about Marvel characters told by indy creators.

What’s Good: Are you curious to see a young Thor who keeps losing Mjolnir because it doesn’t have a strap on it yet?  Would you like to see the kinda girls Reed Richards dated in college?  Any interest in watching the Silver Surfer play cards with a bunch of Skrulls as his master devours their planet?  How does Rogue get out of trouble if she breaks one of Professor X’s favorite vases?

If the answer to any of those was “yes” you should make a point to check out Strange Tales 2.  This is the last issue of an anthology series in which Marvel brings in indy creators and let’s them write/draw short stories about Marvel characters.  “Indy” is a confusing word in comic circles and I think a lot of people use that to mean “not Marvel or DC”.  The majority of these creators are doing things like writing comics under their own imprint, doing webcomics, etc.  In my mind, this is what “indy” means.

As with any anthology, some stories are better than others.  It really doesn’t get any better than the three stories to start this issue.  First we get a story by Terry Moore that shows a young, recently exiled Thor who is having some trouble with Mjolnir.  This story is just hysterical.  That is followed by a James Stokoe riff on Silver Surfer playing cards with Skrulls (who look a lot like his Orc Stain orcs) as Galactus ruins their world.  Might as well get in a last game of cards, huh?  Then we get an awesome Benjamin Marra story featuring U.S. Agent at his boastful, womanizing best as he takes down a terrorist “who’s been genetically spliced with the DNA of a velociraptor!! And if that weren’t enough, he has a nuclear warhead strapped to his back!!  We call him Terror-Saur!!” Of course, he lives in Terror-stan and is threatening the American way of life.

If tongue-in-cheek isn’t your thing, there are also somewhat touching stories about Reed Richards, Michael Morbius, The Thing and a few others.

Mostly though, this issue succeeds because it has a few memorable stories in it where you just say, “That was awesome!”.  And hopefully it inspires to check out a few of these really talented people’s other works.