Madame Xanadu #26 – Review

by Matt Wagner (writer), Chrissie Zullo (art & colors), and Jared K. Fletcher & John J. Hill (letters)

The Story: A boy dogged by a wretched odor is lost in the city without his memories, but in his dreams, he’s a space adventurer pursued by a mysterious witch.

What’s Good: Chrissie Zullo’s work completely and utterly carries this book.  She has crafted what, for me, is the best looking book of the month.  Her work is truly unique and completely distinctive.  It reminds me quite a bit of the early work of Hayao Miyazaki or, really, the more youth-oriented products of 1970s-80s anime in general.  Yet, there’s also a European edge to all of it as well, most particularly expressed in Zullo’s moody, dusty colors.

The book has a very young, energetic feel to it, but one that’s also laden with emotion.  Through her work, Zullo doesn’t just tell a story or convey emotion though.  Rather, she oozes that emotion, as it permeates her work, which is as much about mood as it is narrative.  Furthermore, Zullo doesn’t just translate Wagner’s script; her distinctive style allows her to create a unique, and very special, world that feels all her own.  The result is a book that feels like Chrissie Zullo’s Madame Xanadu, more than it does “Matt Wagner’s Madame Xanadu, drawn by Chrissie Zullo.”

Her work is also varied as well.  The life of main character Sammy is rendered in those dusty colors, everything draped with a sense of sadness.  However, when Zullo draws Sammy’s space-adventurer dreams, the book suddenly becomes a child’s storybook, full of vibrant, simple colors and softer, easier artwork.

Wagner’s script compliments Zullo’s work for the most part, which is an interesting reversal of the writer/artist relationship we usually see in comics.  Wagner’s mood is all about mood and atmosphere; it sets a tone of sadness, disorientation, and loss.  Wagner does a good job of portraying Sammy as childhood innocence lost and adrift in a world that has no place for it.  The result is a truly tragic book and a really somber feel that contrasts with the childish aura of Zullo’s work well.

Madame Xanadu #25 – Review

by Matt Wagner (writer), Laurenn McCubbin (art & colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: A 1960s ad-man starts to hear the people around him say horrible, horrible things.

What’s Good: What a downright creepy and generally unsettling story…  I’m beginning to get the sense that Extra-Sensory is more a horror arc than anything else, and this month’s offering is far more disturbing than last month’s, which already had its grisly moments.  This month’s issues focuses on hearing and, indeed, the things protagonist Spencer Wilkins thinks he hears are really vile; I was quite honestly shocked at how little Wagner held back.  This imagined dialogue is appalling and, Vertigo or not, there are a couple places where Wagner definitely pushes the envelope, often in creative fashion.

But it’s not just the sheer vulgarity and graphic content of this imagined speech that makes the comic disturbing.  There’s a sense of “wrongness” that dogs the issue throughout.  It’s not just these malevolent little imagined speech bubbles either, though they do interrupt and disrupt not just Spencer’s life, but the comic as well.  It’s also the narration.

And boy, is that narration creepy as hell.  Early on, though the narrator seems purely of the omniscient, personality-less sort, it shows little suggestions of sentience.  These little signs grow and grow until the narration, and the narrator, takes on a life of its own in reaction a sudden plot twist that I won’t spoil.  Suddenly the narrator is as much in communication with Spencer as us.  Not only does this bring us closer to the story, it also brings this demonic presence a lot closer to the reader.  The result is an experience that is skin-crawling.

Madame Xanadu #24 – Review

by Matt Wagner (writer), Marley Zarcone (art & colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: A girl in 60s Harlem, Rosy Mays, suffers visions where people around her appear horribly maimed.

What’s Good: This issue marks the start of “Extra-Sensory,” a thematically related series of one-shots, each drawn by a different female artist.  When I first realized this, I was filled with trepidation; I’m naturally uncomfortable each time someone other than Amy Reeder takes on Madame Xanadu.

Thankfully, though, Marley Zarcone steps up to the plate this month with an issue that entirely relieved me of my concerns.  While having a style of her own, Zarcone is a great fit for Xanadu that. While very different from Reeder’s work, she maintains a similar spirit.  Her work remains warm through its cartoonist’s sensibilities and slightly rounded feel, but she also channels a bit of an artsy, 90s Vertigo feel.  Zarcone also handles her own colors and does great work in this regard; her fires look absolutely magnificent.  Better still is how Zarcone makes main character Rosy Mays really stand out from her surroundings.  It mirrors her feelings of isolation while also subtly portraying the state of racial politics in 60s NYC.  It also bears being said that even though her style is by no means photo-realistic, some of the gore that Zarcone depicts is surprisingly disturbing.  A cut throat in particular actually made me wince a bit, and I have a fairly strong constitution.

Wagner’s script works very well in tandem with Zarcone’s art.  He works hand in hand with it in trapping and isolating his protagonist, Rosy.  Forced to see horrible things that are invisible to those around her, Rosy feels stuck in a world all her own.  It’s a very tight script that had me feeling the anxiety of Rosy’s situation as she is lost in a state of total incomprehension.  No one can understand her difficulties or her odd behaviour while she herself cannot understand what she is seeing.  Throughout the issue, Rosy seems trapped in a kind of existential solitude as we experience the horror of having a perception of reality that is not only unique, but unshared and unregistered by anyone else.

This makes Madame Xanadu’s role in the issue all the more powerful.  Though her presence is small, when she finally shows up, she’s the first character to give Rosy that feeling of understanding and as a reader, I felt that sense of relief wash over me.