Ghosts #1 – Review

By: Way too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Proton packs won’t work against these ghosts—not even if you merge streams.

The Review: Early in my reviewing career, I covered an intermittent anthology series called The Gathering (which has no relation to the card game that somehow survived my prepubescent years).  At the time, I felt most of its offbeat features were raw and unpolished, on both the story and art sides.  Vertigo’s Ghosts takes up pretty much the same format, only with established talents on board, resulting in a much more impressive book.  Get ready; this one’s a doozy.

Strange Adventures – Review

By: Various (see below)

The Story: A Vertigo anthology with a sci-fi bent.

[Note: The regular “what’s good”/”what’s not so good” format doesn’t work so well for an anthology like this.  Don’t worry, it’ll return…]

Case 21: (Selwyn Hinds, writer & Denys Cowan, art) A very clever story dealing with a dystopian future police state where a tattoo artist is forced to make some pretty harsh decisions.  It’s well written and has some nice dynamic artwork, including a topless lady getting into a fight with the jackbooted cops.  Cool twist at the end too.  I’d definitely be in favor of seeing more of this story.

The White Room:  (Talia Hershewe, writer & Juan Bobillo, art)  I didn’t love this story as much.  It is set in the future and deals with a couple of punk-kids’ experience with a type of virtual reality/drug called The White Room.  Misadventures in virtual realities or hallucinogenic trips just aren’t my bag, so my lack of enjoyment is 100% due to the subject matter.  Bobillo’s painted and pinkish-tinged art is very visually appealing.

Partners: (Peter Milligan, writer & Sylvain Savoia, art)  This story didn’t really scratch my itch either although I think there is a clever premise within it.  The problem is that the cool twist is revealed a little too soon in the story and that robs it of some of its juice.  For some reason, the artwork reminds me of Charles Burns, but I’m not sure why.  Perhaps it’s because the subject matter is kids with identity crises sitting around a campfire?

All the Pretty Ponies: (Lauren Beukes, writer & Inaki Miranda, art)  This was one of the stars of the issue for me.  What starts out as a Surrogates-type story where rich people are paying money to inhabit and take virtual/remote control of a bunch of poor folks has a very wicked twist.  Great art by Miranda too.  This is another I’d like to see more of.

Ultra the Multi-Alien: (Jeff Lemire, writer and art)  Is it any surprise that Jeff Lemire would give us a heart-wrenching and plaintive tale?  The art is typical Lemire, emotive and stylized, and will be immediately familiar to any fan of Sweet Tooth or Essex County.  The subject matter hits the same types of notes as those other works too.  I don’t want to spoil the twist, but the story deals with an astronaut who is far from home in more ways than one.  More please!

Refuse: (Ross Campbell, writer and art) This story wins the award for the grossest, holy crap moment of the issue.  I really liked Ross’ willingness to show such a nasty looking story and anyone who is willing to draw that has got some real potential.  But, I didn’t really understand the purpose of the story and why this mother is living in such a filthy apartment that her child has been taken away by social services.

CBLDF Liberty Annual 2010 – Review

By: Various including Darick Robertson, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Garth Ennis, Paul Pope, Evan Dorkin, Rob Liefeld, Gail Simone, Scott Morse, Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Brian Azzarello, Frank Miller, Terry Moore, Jeff Smith, Skottie Young, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Ben McCool, Billy Tucci, Larry Marder and more

The Story: Comic creators collaborate on an anthology comic to raise money to protect free speech!

What’s Good: You know what’s good: free speech!  Too often the term “free speech” is only thought of as it applies to journalists, but as soon as you start eroding artists abilities to portray their art in whatever why they please because some people find it distasteful, you start to threaten some of the essential liberties that are part of what it means to be human (much less American).  There are places in the world where people cannot say and print what they please and there are people in the good old USA who occasionally give a comic shop a hard time about displaying comics with – gasp – wanton violence or – double gasp – naked people or – triple gasp – naked people doing naughty things! And by “hard time” we mean “take the comic shop to court”.  The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit that helps comic shops and creators defend themselves against such intrusions into free speech and every so often they put out an Annual to raise awareness and money.

Wednesday Comics #2 – Review

By Gaiman, Allred, Berganza, Galloway, Pope, Palmiotti, Conner, Didio, Lopez, Nowlan, Calwell, Kubert, Kerschl, Fletcher, Simonson, Stelfreeze, Azzarello, Rossio, Gibbons, Sook, Baler, Bullock, Heuck, Acudi, Bermelo, Busiek, Quinones

The Story: The fun, thrills, suspense, and drama continues! DC’s newest creation just might be the comics event of the decade.

What’s Good: Last week’s installment was great, but this week was even better. The stories progressed and improved in interesting and unexpected directions and  I still got a kick out of the newspaper style format. Basically the stories I enjoyed last week, I ended up loving this week, and a few stories that I was iffy about last week, I became hooked on this week. Case-in-point was Green Lantern, which I thought was one of the weakest last installment, but now it’s probably the strongest this week. The Superman story also was on a whole new level this week as it explored his relationship with Batman to perfection. Plus, the art was just jaw-dropping on this strip. The Flash story was also particularly memorable.

It’s hard to put into words, but there is just something intangibly excellent about this whole project. It elicits engrossment and  wonderment that is rarely found in any medium. It’s some type of literary magic that is both ethereal and tangible.

What’s Not So Good: Once again, the Wonder Woman story was something that didn’t attract me at all. I just can’t get into it and I really question why the creator had to tell the story so tersely. It doesn’t lend itself to this format. That being said, the take on the character is unique.

Conclusion: Choose your sports metaphor: a home run; a touchdown, score, goal, or whatever, DC wins big once again with Wednesday Comics. Lee Bemejo gets MVP from this outing.  With DC Wednesday Comics being even better than last week, this work warrants an…

Grade: A+

-Rob G.

DC Wednesday Comics #1 – Review

By Gaiman, Allred, Berganza, Galloway, Pope, Palmiotti, Conner, Didio, Lopez, Nowlan, Calwell, Kubert, Kerschl, Fletcher, Simonson, Stelfreeze, Azzarello, Rossio, Gibbons, Sook, Baler, Bullock, Heuck, Acudi, Bermelo, Busiek, Quinones.

The Story: The Bat-Signal is thrown. Jim Gordon greets Batman bleary-eyed and torn, as the Dark Knight stands on the spotlight and listens. He learns about the abduction of one of Gotham’s best, and how he is set to be murdered at midnight.  Batman looks at the clock, which reads 11:59 PM. Batman crouches and reaches for his Bat-Hook. The scene cuts to the abducted being suffocated. The end of part 1.

This story and fourteen other newspaper styled comic shorts compose this groundbreaking venture by DC Comics.

What’s Good: In a general sense, what’s not to love about Wednesday comics? It’s a newspaper of super hero comics created by some of the greatest talent out there. Seriously, if this doesn’t appeal to you then there is something wrong with your comic book soul.

I would say that 95% of the stories here are all-out winners. The ones that work best are the ones that have the greatest hook, as in most cases, there are only a handful of panels to get the reader interested in the story. The best stories in my opinion were the Batman, Kamandi, Hawkman, Flash and Superman; mostly because of the great art.

As I read these stories, I was pulled into the sense of pure wonder that DC elicits profoundly in a reader. Some stories are fun (Metal Men), some are deep (Flash and Kamandi), some are thrilling (Batman), some have great multi-character work (Metamorpho)  and some are just poetic, like the Hawkman story. There’s a little for every comic book fan in this newspaper.

What’s Not So Good: The Wonder Woman story was terrible and nearly impossible to understand. I didn’t even finish reading it. Also, the Green Lantern was underwhelming and had no hook whatsoever. But, really you can’t hate on this comic/newspaper because of a few blown stories when there are still more installments coming every week for the next couple months.

Conclusion: This is really cool stuff, and kudos to DC for making this happen and for making such a daring and novel move. The last time I was this excited about a comic book medium was when I was a kid and there was a cereal that had comics in its box, that even had a “page” on the back (Does any WCBR reader remember this too?).  This should be their next 52 week project.

It’s not just the idea that works here, but the comics are actually mostly excellent as long as your willing, as a reader, to try a new form. This is an incredibly diverse selection of styles and stories and it just works brilliantly. I cannot wait for next week’s installment of Wednesday Comics.  I would totally give this an A+, but my boss Ray would give me a virtual wack and correctly remind me that a few of these stories didn’t deliver and we only give A+’s to near perfection. However, this is the first time that I can remember when I have given two different books from the same company an “A” in the same week. Nevertheless, DC has done it with a great Green Lantern #43 and this awesome invention.

Grade: A

– Rob G.